


A Second Chance

by Rousdower



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/M, Modern Girl in Middle Earth, silliness, this is just for fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-10
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-03-11 10:22:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 30,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3324002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rousdower/pseuds/Rousdower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma Fields was relatively normal (well... besides her mind); She had a fiancee, her books, her trees... And then she found her fiancee with another woman. Distraught, she runs to the only place that could giver her comfort... Her forest. Unfortunately, she has a little accident while climbing a tree. Waking up, she discovers herself an elf, in a weird forest, and faced with a sassy Elvenking, who seems to have nothing resembling a heart. And a tendency to... irritate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ... Enjoy? *crawls into hole*

"I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS!"

"I can explain-"

"How can you possibly explain me walking into my own home and seeing you, my fiancé, cuddled up on my couch, with another woman!"

"Fine! You want the truth? You are impossible! You always want to go into the woods and that's not fair, since I'm allergic to every possible type of tree in existence! You read all of the time and I'm sick of it!"

"So you're solution to this is to date other women behind my back?"

"Actually, YES! And you know what else-"

Enough was enough. Emma was to upset to deal with this anymore. If her fiancé couldn't accept her for her than it was best to end this now. She felt like she was going to cry and she would not do it in front of her soon-to-be-ex fiancé, so she smoothly interrupted him.

"You know what? This-" Emma gestured wildly around with her hands, "This, is over. NO! I don't want to hear it! If you can't except me for who I am, then this sure as hell can't continue. It won't continue. Now get out of my house, NOW!"

She ripped off her ring and threw it at his chest. When all he did was stand there glaring at her and breathing heavily, she spun on her heel and ran out of the house.

As she ran towards the woods in the back, she let her tears fall freely. She had come home from Georgia early, hoping to surprise her fiancé of two months. When she walked into her living room, imagine her surprise, she saw her fiancé (now ex-fiancé, she couldn't forget that) curled up on the couch with another woman, watching sappy romance movies. She recalled the look on his face when he had seen her standing there in the doorway, it hadn't been scared, it hadn't been guilty, heck, it hadn't even been surprised. It had been smug, combined with an, oh-there-you-are type of look.

She had been horrified, quickly morphing into livid. She had started to scream at him, not noticing the other woman, slipping out the front door.

Emma couldn't believe that this was over. That they were over. She had wanted to spend the rest of her life with this man, have children with him. And now it was all over. Every single one of her hopes were crushed.

Finally she had reached the forest, the tall trees that usually brought her comfort, for the first time, didn't. Heading towards her favorite tree, a large oak with huge sprawling roots, she listened to the crickets. Crickets, that's what she had heard after her rant at Jared. That though brought on a fresh wave of tears. Still sobbing, she disregarded the dew that was making the bark dangerously slippery and began climbing. She had almost reached her favorite resting spot when both her feet slipped. With a scream, she fell backwards, arms and legs flailing wildly.

The last thing she remembered was hearing a horrible snap and feeling brief pain in her neck. Her last thought was, Boy, falling is uncomfortable.

And then nothing


	2. Chapter 2

When Emma woke up, the first thing she registered was the smell. It was divine. It was the smell of flowers, the forest, and just outside in general. Altogether, it smelled better than her own forest. Wait, that wasn't right... The next thing she registered was the extremely uncomfortable surface that she was lying on. It was rough, kind of like tree bark. Hey, that was definitely not right... And finally, the breeze registered. That... that was just wrong.

Her eyes snapped open. She was lying on her back and above her was a canopy of tree branches, a very unfamiliar canopy of tree branches. Oh well, it must be her sleep addled head. She turned said head to the side and realized that she was lying on a tree branch. She immediately froze. How on earth did she from her bed to a tree branch? How on earth did she get from her bed to a forest! She was positive that she didn't sleepwalk. Or did she...

She realized she had no actual memories of getting into bed the night before. Speaking of bed, she was still tired and it smelled so lovely... she decided that she would figure out this puzzle later and just go back to sleep. Yes, she liked to sleep. It was a weakness.

oOo

What woke her up a few hours later was the sound of voices speaking in low tones and soft footsteps walking through leaves. Wait leaves? (her memory was never the best...) It sounded as it it were coming from her right. So, forgetting she was lying on a tree branch, she rolled over to her right... and fell right out of the tree.

She didn't even scream as she fell. She was that startled (a bit of an understatement). She landed on her stomach with a rather loud Uhhhfff. She lay still for a moment, then groaned loudly. She slowly flopped onto her back and opened her eyes.

Staring down at her was a giant elk.

She screamed and scrambled backwards, ignoring the pain in her ribs. What on earth was a giant elk doing in her forest? What was she doing in her forest (we must remember her poor memory)?

"What the heck!" she squeaked. She was never one for cursing. It disturbed her.

The giant elk merely tilted it's head a little. That's when she got a glimpse of the person sitting on it. He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. She was pretty sure that her mouth was hanging open.

He had long, almost platinum, blonde hair, icy blue eyes and... pointed ears? Oh, God. She was dreaming. That had to be it. Why else would she be in her woods? She quickly looked around. Oh, no. These weren't her woods. She turned her head back to the elf on the elk. Why was he on an elk? Nevermind, that didn't matter.

He had an eyebrow raised and was looking at her expectantly. She snapped into defensive mode and wondered, off-hand, why he had a bunch of sticks on his head.

"What are you looking at?" she snapped as she struggled to her feet. At that, both of the elf's eyebrows went up and he said smoothly, "An elleth who just fell out of a tree. I must say, it is unheard of."

"Oh don't be such a smarty-pan- Excuse me, what did you call me?" he had called her something. She did not like being called names. Nope. Not at all.

The elf looked slightly confused, "An elleth."

She put her hands on her hips and said in an offended tone, "What is that supposed to mean?"

He looked even more confused, "An elleth. A female elf?"

"I'm not an elf... See?" she moved her hair aside.

The elf went back to just raising one eyebrow and said dryly, "It looks like it to me."

Emma, thoroughly confused and certain that this was a dream, slowly raised her hand to her ear and gasped.

They were pointed. Her ears were pointed. Her. Ears. Were. Pointed. That wasn't right. She was so shocked that she took a step back. And then the pain registered. Her ribs were killing her. If this was a dream they wouldn't be hurting her. But it had to be. She wanted to wake up and be at home, in her own forest, with her fiancé. Her fiancé. She gasped and tears came to her eyes.

She had broken up with him. She remembered now. She broke up with him and ran into the her forest. She climbed her tree... and then... and then. And then it went blank. The last thing that she remembered was climbing the tree. She didn't even remember climbing it all the way...

She was snapped back to the real world by the devastatingly handsome elf saying, "Why were you alone, in a tree, in the middle of nowhere?"

"That, is none of your business." she snapped. Confused, that was her.

Suddenly another voice spoke, "Watch your tongue, commoner."

Her eyes narrowed and she slowly leaned to the side to see that the elf on the elk, had, in fact, a bunch of other elves (not on elk) behind him. The one that had spoken was also devastatingly beautiful (though not as beautiful as the one on the elk, actually they looked a little similar) and on a horse, glaring daggers at her.

Glaring right back she said, "I will use my tongue to say what I please. And I am not a commoner, as I do not even live here." she looked thoughtful and added, "Where am I anyways?"

The elves looked scandalized and the elf on the horse hissed, "I will say it one more time. Watch. Your. Tongue." Emma noted with satisfaction, that he was breathing rather heavily.

The elf on the elk spoke again, "Legolas, dina." he then turned to Emma, "You do not know where you are?"

"Nope. But I'd rather know what gives you the idea that you can speak to me like I am some sort of inferior."

He raised his eyebrow, again. What was with him and the eyebrow raising. He's like an elvish Spock... "I am Thranduil, King of Mirkwood- Why do you have that ridiculous look on you face?"

Emma's mouth was hanging open and she had the goofiest grin of all existence on her face, "Did you say... did you say..." she choked on her giggles, "Did you say that you were the king of Smirkwood?" After managing to get that out she burst into fits of laughter. It was not doing good things for her ribs (she was pretty sure they were bruised), but when she saw the scandalized look on the elvish kings face, it just got worse.

After she calmed down, she noticed that the elvish king, Thranduil? What kind of name was that? Any way, she noticed that Thranduil was starting to look rather angry.

He took a deep breath, "I am the king of Mirkwood-" he stressed the Mirk part- "Forest. That is where you are and you will accompany us back to my palace."

Oh, she did not like that sassy tone. So, she decided to butt heads with this elvish king, "Uhhhhhm, nope. Not goin' anywhere."

A scandalized mutter swept through the crowd of elves behind Thranduil. Emma just grinned.

This time, she actually got him to scowl. An actual scowl. Sweet.

"I think that you misheard me. I said that you will be returning to my palace. It was not a request. It was an order, in case that didn't already get through your thick skull."

Emma sniggered, "You are not my king. I am not going to listen to you. I'm not planning on listening to you. Get that through your thick skull."

The elvish kings eyes widened and he suddenly yelled, "Guards!" two elves ran up from behind him, "Make sure this young lady gets to the palace. Do not let her escape."

Emma tried to make a dash for it, but the guards were to fast. They soon had her by the arms and before she knew it, she was being dragged behind the giant elk, behind the horse who carried the elf, Legolas, and turned around so that she was facing the creatures rear ends. She scowled. An idea popped into her head and she decided that instead of trying to get away, she would just become a deadweight.

She dropped and one of the guards muttered something under his started moving and Emma couldn't help but entertain the hope that this really was all just a dream.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy :D :D :D

After seven and a half (approximately) minutes, Emma decided that she disliked dungeons. Immensely.

She had been dragged back to a huge palace made of roots and hauled across bridges made of roots, all the while observing her surroundings, most of which, were made of roots.

Eventually they had reached a large, slightly dirty, a lot damp, semi-dark room. It was made mostly of roots. What was with the roots? Not that she minded, but this was a little ridiculous. Of course she then noticed the cells and deduced that this room was a dungeon.

Unfortunately for the guards that were dragging her, she had talked the entire time they were moving, "Why am I being brought to a dungeon?"

No answer.

"Does that elf king plan on releasing me at some point?"

Still no answer. Disgruntled by her lack of response, Emma had tried some a ridiculous question, "What are your names?"

Nothing.

"I'll have to give you names if you don't tell me your real ones."

Silence.

"Fine! I'll call you on the left, Carl and you on the right Zippy."

This time both of the guards had rolled their eyes, though the one on the left looked faintly amused. Score 1 Emma. she had thought smugly.

Emma sighed and thunked her head onto her knees. It was so boring down here... She heard a creak and saw the guard she had designated as Zippy, walking towards her with a tray.

"Oh yay! Food!" she shouted joyfully.

Zippy rolled his eyes and opened the door, shoving the tray inside. Emma grabbed it and immediately started snarfing it down. Looking up, she saw that he was still standing there (he looked a little disgusted). Raising her eyebrows she asked, "And you want...?"

He shook his head a little (probably to get the disgusting image of her eating out) and said, "The Elvenking wishes to speak with you when you are finished... eating."

Stuffing another bite of salad in her mouth (just to annoy him) she said, "Ok. Almost done. Though I do not plan on cooperating."

Zippy looked like he was about to say something, but seemed to think better of it, choosing to just stand there silently and watch her eat. Emma briefly thought about how it was a little creepy to have somebody just stand there and watch her eat. Who does that? She mentally sniggered, apparently elvish guards named Zippy did. She wondered how many elves were named Zippy...

Banishing the thought lest she burst into hysterical laughter, Emma got up and said, "All done. Bring me to his Royal Eyebrowness." Zippy scowled, but nevertheless opened the cell door and grabbed her arm, guiding her towards the dungeon door.

"Hey, hey, hey! No need to man-handle me! Or is it elf-handle? Do you know?" Emma said. Zippy just rolled his eyes.

Outside they were joined by Carl and Emma said brightly, "Oh, hi Carl! I was just asking Zippy here if your term for being roughly jerked around was man-handled or elf-handled. Would you happen to know the answer? Zippy seems a little slow."

Carl bowed a little, looking extremely amused, "Well my lady, if Zippy seems a little slow, then I shall indeed answer the question. I believe the term is man-handled, though now that I think about it, I am not sure why."

Zippy groaned and said, "Please don't encourage her, Arntel."

Carl (he would always be Carl to Emma now) feigned surprise, "Why Zippy! I was under the impression that my name was Carl!"

Zippy face-palmed and groaned again. Emma and Carl were still sniggering, when the reached the throne room

Falling silent, Emma gazed around the room in awe. Yeah, it was still mostly made of roots, but it was still pretty awesome. At the center, there was an enormous throne made out of... were those antlers? Well he did have a giant elk...

Sitting on the throne and looking especially pompous, was Thranduil the King of Smirkwood (Emma was pretty sure that that was what she was going to call this forest from now on).

Zippy and Carl stepped off to the side and the Elvenking said snarkily, "Do like your room?"

Emma curtsied dramatically and replied, "Of course I do!"

Eying her suspiciously, Thranduil cut straight to the chase, "What were you doing in my forest?"

Emma shrugged, "No idea." Well it was the truth.

Raising an eyebrow he said, "No idea? So you do not know how you got into a tree in my forest?"

"Nope."

"Where are you from?"

Emma thought a moment, wondering if she should tell the truth or not. This was, after all, Middle Earth. They had no idea that Earth existed. Deciding against telling the truth, she said, "I live in Rivendell." (Emma had only watched the movies a couple of times, so she had minimal knowledge of this world).

Thranduil waved his hand in the general direction of Carl and Zippy, "Send word to Imladris that one of their own has found herself inexplicably in out forest."

Zippy dashed off, but not before Emma could yell at him, "See ya around Zippy!"

Thranduil opened his mouth to say something, when he seemed to do a double take, "Did you just call him Zippy?" he asked.

Emma began to examine her finger-nails, "Yup."

"Why?"

"It's his name."

"But-"

Emma said suddenly, "I have a complaint about your room service."

Thranduil raised his eyebrows (what is with those eyebrows?).

Taking that as a sign to continue, Emma scowled, "There weren't any waffles."

Thranduil looked confused, "What is a waffle?"

"You don't know what a waffle is?" Emma asked. She knew full well that he didn't, which was exactly why she brought it up.

Thranduil shook his head.

Deciding to confuse him even more, she said quickly, "Well it's a square shaped thing, made out of different stuff, cooked on this thingy, and you put different condiments onto it and eat it."

The Elvenking looked so confused that she couldn't help herself and she burst into the hysterical laughter she had been holding back for the last fifteen minutes (it had started to build up when he had raised his eyebrow) She almost felt sorry for Thranduil. Almost.

Thranduil rubbed his face, "I've changed my mind, I can't deal with you right now. You over there, bring her back to her cell."

Carl stepped forward and took her arm, leading her back towards the direction of the dungeons.

oOo

Several hours later, Emma woke up from a nice long (though, uncomfortable) nap and yawned. She scowled when she looked at the bars of her cell. After she had woken up a little bit more, she thought about how she could get out.

She yawned again and scratched her head and, lo and behold, there was a hairpin (what a happy coincidence). Emma grinned to herself, remembering all of the times her and her cousin would pick the lock of the cupboard that the candy was held in.

The gaps between the bars were just big enough for her to fit her hand through and she stuck the pin in the lock, wiggling it around.

After about five minutes, she was rewarded with a click and the cell door swung open. Still grinning a little, she carefully stepped out of her cell. Looking around furtively, she dashed to the door of the dungeon. Sticking her head out, she looked both ways and chose the opposite direction of the throne room. Unfortunately, she couldn't remember the direction towards the main entrance, so, she was just winging it.

After making several random turns, Emma realized that she was hopelessly lost. She slowly spun in a circle, hoping to recognize something. Nope. No bells went off. She sighed. There was only one thing that she hated more than being lost, and that was spiders. Oh how she loathed those disgusting, black (though the white ones were worse), hairy, leggy...

"Well, well, well. What do we have here."

Emma let out a small scream and spun around, colliding with a solid something that she recognized to be somebody's chest. She leaped almost a foot backwards with a slightly quieter scream (more of a squeak) and there, with his eyebrows, twig crown, and overall sassy expression, was the now loathed (Emma had decided that that was how she felt about him shortly after her second encounter with him) King of Smirkwood.


	4. Chapter 4

They stood there in a silent face-off.

King Sassy-Face of Smirkwood had his eyebrow raised (again) and Emma looked like a deer caught in headlights. It was thirty-two seconds before Emma actually did something.

She didn't know what to do, what to say, so her mouth took over while her mind worked high-speed, "Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm." She then did the only thing she could think of, shot him a cheesy grin and said, "Hi?"

With that, she turned around and ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

Taking random lefts and rights, she was sure she heard him chasing her. That was verified when, after about a second he bellowed, "GUARDS!"

She whipped her head around and there he was, four feet (approximately) behind her. Panic made her go even faster, plus the sound of several more pairs of feet chasing her. She ran through a large room filled with books, another large room filled with instruments, another large room with nothing in it,a small room with little bottles in it, a room that was in between large and small that had bolts of cloth in it, the throne room (she almost ran off the root bridge there...), she passed the door to the dungeons just as she started to lose the feeling in her legs and she chanced a glance behind her. He was still there, followed by a few guards (whom were unfortunately not Zippy and Carl) and they looked just barely out of breath. Stupid fit elven men.

She turned her head just in time to see the wall in front of her face, before it all went black.

oOo

"Unnnnngggggghhhhh..."

Emma blinked her eyes open. Her head hurt like... like... it hurt too bad to find a simile to describe it. What had happened? She looked around and saw King Sassy-Face (she was almost positive that she was going to call him that forever now) looking at her with a triumphant smirk on his face.

"What happened?" she mumbled.

He sniggered. Wait, sniggered? King Sassy-Face of Smirkwood reduced himself to sniggering? Wow...

Anyways... he sniggered, "I do believe that you have run into a wall and given yourself a rather nasty concussion."

"I ran into a wall?" Emma was shocked... actually, she wasn't. It was just the sort of thing she would do. She tried to sit up, but the pain in her head made her so dizzy, she thumped back down onto the pillow... Of course that only made it worse.

King Sassy-Face examined his nails while he said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Emma scowled at him and crossed her arms. He merely smirked. After a couple of minutes, he sighed and looked up at her.

"Now, I would really like to know the name of the girl who is stupid enough to run into walls." he said (sassily).

Emma's scowl grew darker. There was no way she was telling King Sassy-Face her name. Oh no. Never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. Ever. A devious though entered her head, she could give him a fake one...

She sighed in resignation (it was a fake one of course) and said sadly, "My name is... Yodella."

The Elvenking's mouth fell open, "You are jesting!"

Emma was careful to keep her face expressionless as she shook her head and said, "I am absolutely serious. My name is Yodella."

King Sassy-Face shook his head in awe, "I have never heard such a ridiculous name in my life."

Emma was trying very hard not to laugh, so, she turned her back to him, saying, "I am very tired. Please go away. Your ever sassy presence is annoying me. Immensely."

To her surprise, he got up and left. Wow, she never saw that coming. She gave it a good minute and a half before she burst into hysterical laughter.

oOo

A couple of days later, Emma was so bored, she almost got up and bashed her injured head on a wall again. Thinking better of it, she decided to think of more names she could call King Sassy-Face. She eventually had a couple thousand (that was an exaggeration, more like a couple hundred... the possibilities were endless), so she gave up on that and examined her room for the hundredth time.

It was a very beautiful room, made mostly of roots and the bed was extremely comfortable (yes, it was also made mostly of roots).

To her surprise, the door swung open and in entered the rude elf (no, not Sassy-Face), what was his name? Legoless? Legless? Giving up, she settled with looking at him expectantly.

He narrowed his eyes at her and sat in the chair by her bed. Narrowing her eyes right back at him, she crossed her arms.

"You were very rude to my ada the other day." he said sternly.

"Your Wahoogawhatsit?" Emma had no idea what the heck an ada was... and she wanted this annoying elf, person, thing to go away.

He looked vaguely surprised and said slowly, as if he was speaking to a child, "My

ada, my father?"

"Whatever. Is King Sassy-Face your father?"

The MED (Mysterious Elf Dude) scowled, "You're doing it again. And yes, he is my father."

"I'm not sorry." she said, crossing her arms stubbornly.

Suddenly, MED grinned, "Good."

That confused her. He was grinning at her... after she had been impolite to his father...

MED continued, "You're the first person to actually be rude to him and it'd refreshing. I know it sounds disrespectful, but he is really getting on my nerves lately," he said conversationally as he propped his elbows up on his knees, "He has been keeping me cooped up in here most of the time, I'm only allowed into the forest once a week. I mean, that is ridiculous! I know there are spiders and stuff out there, but Tauriel and I are more than a match for them."

Emma's mouth was slightly agape.

"And not only that," he continued, "But he is trying to get me to marry elleths I haven't even looked at twice! And he is sooooo strict! 'Legolas, don't do this.' 'Legolas, don't do that'... I'm sick and tired of it!"

He stopped for a breath. Emma was thunderstruck. This elf, this Legolas, comes traipsing into her room, looking all big and bad... and he suddenly starts complaining about his father! I mean he has a point and all, but this is rather sudden...

Suddenly (he's a rather sudden person)he asked, "What's you're name?"

Without thinking she said, dazedly, "Emma."

"Emma... that is a nice name."

Of course she then realized her mistake, she was supposed to be Yodella... Inside her mind, she was throwing a small tantrum. She had not meant to let that slip.

Legolas suddenly got up, saying, "I must go now, my father had wanted to speak to me. Is it alright if I talk to you again?"

"Ummm, sure..." as abrupt as it had been, it was a rather entertaining conversation. He left the room and she stared around, still a little shocked.

oOo

After another few days, she was summoned by King Sassy-Face. She waltzed into the throne room, Zippy and Carl following (it seems they had become her personal bodyguards or something...), bowed dramatically and said in a over-majestic voice, "His Royal Highness, King Sassy-Face summoned me?"

She grinned at the scowl on his face and winked at Legolas, who was wearing a very convincing scowl of his own, nevertheless, he winked back.

"I have been informed, that you, an elf, do not know your own language." the Elvenking said sternly.

Emma sniffed and looked around lazily while saying, "Yeppers."

Scowling even more, he asked, "Where are you from, Yodella?"

She almost blew her cover, she had forgotten about that name... But it wouldn't have mattered, Legolas blew it for her, "But father, her name is Emma."

King Sparkly-Robe (one of the names she had thought up while bedridden) looked shocked, "She told me that her name was Yodella..."

Emma couldn't. She just couldn't hold it in any longer. She burst out laughing so hard, she fell onto the ground. Yes, it made her head hurt, but it was either that or bursting.

King Sassy-Face was really angry now, in fact, he looked livid, "Is this true, that your name is, in fact, Emma?" he said in a deadly calm voice.

All Emma could do was nod. She had actually embarrassed King Sassy-Face in front of a whole bunch of his subjects. The effect was most certainly invigorating.

The Elvenking got up from the throne he had been lazily draped over and prowled (yes, prowled) down the dais. Coming to a stop directly in front of her, he put his hands behind his back and began prowling again, this time in circle around her.

"I still want to know where you are from." his tone betrayed nothing.

"I told you, I am from Rivendell." Emma said.

His voice came from behind her, "I sent messengers there to inquire and guess what?" his voice was right next to her ear, "They know nothing of you."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, thanks for all the feedback guys!! Glad y'all like it!! :D
> 
> Rousdower out_

Emma groaned. Once again, she had been thrown into the dungeons. King Prissy-Pants wasn't happy when she'd refused to tell him where she was from.

It was for the best though, if she had told them she was from another world, they would think she was even more crazy then she really was! (she considered herself slightly loopy). Therefore, she was still stuck in this stupid dungeon.

She still had her hairpin, but she didn't think she'd make it far. And she didn't want to run into anymore walls... She had to think of a plan to escape, maybe she could get them to take her outside... she was always good at hiding in the forest back home.

Home.

Emma missed home, but she also had nothing left there. Emma made a face. Not that I have anything here either...

The dungeon door swung open and Carl walked in with her meal. Opening the cell door he set it down and smiled at her.

"Thanks, Carl," she mumbled.

"You're welcome, Emma," he grinned, "You have to stop getting yourself thrown into the dungeons. It's not healthy."

"Decidedly not, " she grumbled at him, seeing the tin cup on her tray, she suddenly had an idea, "Carl, is Zippy out there?"

Carl nodded and she grinned deviously, beckoning to him.

oOo

Carl walked out of the dungeon and took his place on the other side of the door. Zippy looked over at him and said, "What's she doing now?"

Carl just shrugged. All of the sudden, a clanging sound came from the dungeons. Zippy sprang into immediate action and ran through the door, towards Emma's cell. He stopped dead when he saw what was making the noise.

Emma was banging her tin cup against the bars and when she saw him, she started chanting, "WAFFLES! WAFFLES! WAFFLES! WAFFLES! WAFFLES!..."

Zippy was very irritated, "What do you want!"

She stopped her clanging momentarily and said stoically, "I want waffles."

Confused, he asked "And what is a waffle?"

Emma rolled her eyes at him, "I am not explaining that again," that being said, she resumed her banging and chanting.

"Will you stop!" Zippy snapped.

"WAFFLES! WAFFLES! WAFFLES! WAFFLES!..."

"Be quiet!"

"WAFFLES! WAFFLES! WAFFLES!..."

Zippy rolled his eyes and stomped out of the dungeon. Carl caught his eye and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, shut up!" Zippy growled.

"i didn't say anything."

Zippy suddenly realized that it was finally quiet. Just as he let out a sigh of relief...

"WAFFLES! WAFFLES! WAFFLES!..."

oOo

After two days of being bored and chanting 'WAFFLES!' whenever she saw Zippy, Emma was once again, summoned by King Sassy-Face.

Flouncing into the throne-room, with Zippy and Carl, trailing behind, Emma bowed with a flourish and said, imperiously, "His Royal Highness, King Sparkly-Robe has summoned me?"

The Elvenking rolled his eyes and undraped himself from his throne. Walking down the dais, he approached her until they were about a foot away. Emma crossed her arms and he raised an eyebrow, His eyebrows are actually kinda cute... WAIT WHAT DID I JUST THINK! THAT IS WRONG! KING SASSY-FACE DOES NOT HAVE ATTRACTIVE EYEBROWS!

She just barely registered in time that the Elvenking had started talking, "...where you are from."

Sick of him asking, she hollered, "I AM NOT TELLING YOU WHERE I AM FROM!" King Sassy-Face started to prowl in circles again, "AND STOP PROWLING! It's creepy..."

He had completed a full circle and stopped in front of her again, "Very well. If you will not tell me where you are from, you shall not leave these halls until you tell me."

Emma shrugged, "It doesn't matter to me Your Sassiness."

King Sassy-Face scowled, "I would appreciate it, if you would stop calling me names."

Emma grinned, "Alright! I'll keep calling you names!"

Rolling his eyes, the Elvenking said in a bored tone, "Bring her back to the dungeons."

oOo

"Hey Carl! C'm 'ere!"

Poking his head through the door Carl said, "Yes, Emma?"

"Tell King Sassy-Face that I'm ready to tell him where I'm from."

Carl grinned, "On it."

Waltzing into the throne room (Emma knew her dramatic entrances annoyed His Royal Sassiness) she said in a loud and overall majestic voice, "Greetings, elf-man! I hail from Earth!"

Raising his eyebrows, Thranduil asked, "That is supposed to mean...?"

Emma rolled her eyes, "Earth is where I'm from, Oh Majestic King of Smirkwood."

"And where is this... Earth?"

Shrugging, Emma replied, "Don't know. I was climbing a tree there and I woke up in a tree here. This place is fictional. On Earth, it's just a book."

The Elvenking absentmindedly rubbed his chin, He looks kinda cute when he's thinking too... HEY! BAD EMMA! BAD EMMA! she started smacking herself on the head... it took a few seconds to realize that she was being stared at by everyone in the room. Grinning sheepishly, Emma shuffled around and suddenly had the urge to get out of this stupid root palace. Before she could stop herself, she blurted out, "I want to go outside."

King Sparkly-Robe raised his eyebrows and it seemed like he was going to refuse her, when he suddenly said, "You two, " he gestured to Zippy and Carl, "Bring her outside, do not let her out of your sight."

Zippy and Carl bowed simultaneously, saying "Yes, your Majesty."

oOo

Finally, she was outside. And in forest nonetheless! Emma loved trees and at the moment, she was scanning for the perfect one to climb. She looked at Zippy out of the corner of her eye. An idea struck and she slowly edged over until she was right next to him, grinning, she started chanting, "Waffles! Waffles! Waffles!..." Zippy groaned and hid his face in his hands when Carl joined her in the chant.

They had been walking and annoying Zippy with waffle chants and incessant talking for a good fifteen minutes before she found it.

A giant... oak? Was it an oak? At this point she didn't care and ran over to it, giggling a little. As she hoisted herself onto the first branch, Carl called up, "Be careful, my lady!"

Emma rolled her eyes, "I've been climbing trees my whole life! And since when did you start calling me 'my lady'? Whenever you did, stop doing it. It makes me uncomfortable."With that she climbed nimbly to the third branch.

As she reached for the fourth branch, she gasped. Her vision had gone funny and suddenly she was seeing herself reach for a branch, but on a different tree. She saw herself lose her grip and fall backwards. She heard the horrible snap her neck made and screamed. She couldn't think of anything but the sound that her neck made and the sensation of falling backwards. Zippy was climbing up below her, trying to get her to calm down, but she kept screaming.

Forgetting where she was, she let go of the tree to cover her eyes, all she could see was her own body, lying lifeless on the floor of her forest. She felt herself begin to tip backwards and blacked out from fear before she had even started to fall.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ehheheeheh, Hi. Sorry it took so long... I really have no excuse since this story is finished... ( ._.) I will try to update once a day from now on.

Emma flew into a sitting position within the space of one second. Gasping, she ran into the adjoining bathroom and threw up. Why? Why did she have to remember her... her... death, while she was climbing a tree? Why?

She slowly walked back to her bed and just as she sat down, a young elf girl came in, who, upon seeing her standing, rushed over and shoved her back down.

"Hey! Hey! No need to be so pushy-shovey!" Emma said, indignantly.

"I apologize, hiril vuin, but you are not to stand" the elf girl said, calmly.

"Well then. I apologize for having to use the bathroom." Emma was feeling upset. When she got upset, she started to be sarcastic. A sarcastic Emma results in misery all round. Miserable misery.

The young elf girl did not reply, so, Emma, getting bored of referring to the young elf girl as YEG (young elf girl) in her head, decided to ask her what her name was.

"My name is Miri, hiril vuin." Miri said with a smile.

"Oh," Emma said, quietly. Being with another female was making her think of her friends. Even though she didn't have many, they were almost like family to her.

Without even thinking, Emma blurted out, "Will you be my friend?"

Miri stared at her like she was a hobgoblin. Emma said quickly, "Never-mind, never-mind." before turning a way and fiddling with her hair.

She turned when she felt a hand on her arm and Miri was standing there, smiling at her, "Of course I'll be your friend."

"You don't have to. Going by the look on your face, it seems about as appealing as dating an Ewok." Emma muttered.

"I had that look on my face, because no-one has asked me to be their friend before. I was a little scared at first, I did not know how to respond." Mirii said reassuringly.

Emma grinned, "Great! I have a friend! A pal! An amigo! an amicus! A fellow conspirator! A BUDDY!" she shouted that last part joyfully. Then she noticed Miri looking at her with a slightly confused expression, "What?" she asked innocently.

Miri opened her mouth slightly, then closed it again, then finally said, "What is an Ewok?"

The only thing Emma could do, was bust out laughing.

oOo

By the next day, Emma was as good as new (except for some emotional scarring. Who wouldn't be scarred from seeing their own death?)

Naturally, the Elvenking summoned her as soon as she left her room (she thought she had seen someone lurking in the shadows... she detested lurkers)

The one different thing was, she was not brought to the throne-room. She was brought to a library. At the sight of books, she almost passed out. Next to being in the woods, Emma loved reading most (really, she considered herself in almost-heaven when she was reading in the woods), so, totally ignoring King Eternal-Eyebrows, she hopped over to the nearest book-case. Just as she was about to reach for a book, a hand caught her wrist.

"Ewwwwwww! You touched me!" Emma said in a disgusted voice as she ripped her hand out of his grasp and hopped away (I honestly don't know why she was hopping...).

The Elvenking looked extremely confused, he glanced down at his hand to see if there was something wrong with it, finding nothing whatsoever the matter, he glared at Emma, "What was that for?"

"What was what for?" Emma asked innocently.

"Why did you react the way you did?"

"Why did I react the way I did to what?" she had the countenance of an angel.

Thranduil glared, "You know very well what. Answer the question, or I will throw you back into the dungeons." remembering the waffle incident, he added, "And you won't get any tin cups either."

"I reacted the way I did, because you are a Sassy person. I detest sassy people." Emma pouted.

"You are a sassy person."

"NO! I'm not sassy. I'm snarky. There is a very fine line between sassy and snarky and you, my friend, have crossed it." she folded her arms and glared at him, "Now, what did you want?"

Gracefully clasping his hands behind his back, King Sassy-Face said, "The incident that occurred a few days ago has come to my attention."

Emma hoped he wouldn't ask her what it was about.

"I would like to know, what it was all about."

Urrrrrrrrgh. I knew he would ask that... Emma did not want to tell him she had died before she came to Middle Earth... to many memories. She wanted to forget as soon as possible. So, Emma did the only thing she could, since running away was out of the question, she rolled her eyes and said, "I have no bloody idea."

Narrowing his eyes, Thranduil hissed, "Liar..."

That, was a little freaky. Having no wish to be hissed at by an angry Elvenking again, Emma lied, "Oh, FINE. I saw a spider."

Both of Thranduil's eyebrow shot up, "There should be no ungol this close to the palace. How big was it?"

To make it convincing (in her opinion), Emma held her thumb and finger about an inch apart and said in a quivery voice, "This big."

To her dismay, King Sparkly-Robes burst out laughing, "THAT is ALL?"

Emma paled, "You mean there are bigger ones?"

All King Sassy-face could manage was a nod. Scowling, Emma crossed her arms, "I have a VERY SERIOUS case of ARACHNIPHOBIA!"

Still chuckling a little, the Elvenking shook his head slightly and caught her glancing at the bookshelves, "You like to read?"

Emma rolled her eyes and almost said, 'No, duh.' but remembered his threat of tin-cupless imprisonment. Shuddering a little, she nodded and gestured to the bookshelves with an expression that said everything. King Sassy-Face shrugged and said, "Be my guest."

"I thought I was your prisoner." Emma muttered as she edged around the Elvenking.

"True." he said with a smirk.

Shooting a glare over her shoulder Emma stopped in front of the bookcase. Thranduil moved so he was directly behind her, basically breathing down her neck. Not really noticing, Emma whipped out a book so fast that it flew out of her hand and into King Sassy-Face's well... face.

"OUCH!" Thranduil was holding on to his nose with a very pained expression on his face. Emma started to laugh hysterically and barely managed to choke out an apology. King Hurt-Nose took his hands off his nose and Emma saw that it was bleeding, she stopped laughing and said, "Do you have a tissue?"

"What is a tissue?" Thranduil asked exasperatedly.

"A handkerchief? Do you have one of those?" Emma ignored his question.

Looking scandalized, King Sparkly Robe said indignantly, "Do I look like I have one?"

Rolling her eyes she stomped over to the door and called to the guard outside, he approached and she beckoned him closer with her finger. When he was a foot away, she grabbed his sleeve and tugged it a little saying, in a conspiratorial voice, "C'mere,"

When he was a few inches away, she quickly tore off some of his sleeve and darted back into the library.

She ignored his muffled protests as she handed the scrap of cloth to Thranduil and absentmindedly picked up the book that was the cause of King Now-Slightly-Bloodied-Up-Sassy-Face's hurt nose. She opened it up and froze.

"DANGIT!" she hollered, slamming the book and shoving it on the shelf.

"What is it now?" Thranduil said tiredly.

"Mmmpothhremthin..." she muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"Icantreadelvish." she muttered a bit louder.

"I still can't understand you."

"I. Can't. Read. ELVISH!" she yelled.

The Elvenking sighed and said, "That can be easily fixed," with that, he left the room, leaving a pouting Emma behind.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't update sooner, had wifi troubles LOL! Thanks for the comments guys ^_^

Emma looked furtively around the corridor. Dashing out from her hiding spot, she ran to the end of the hallway and took a left. She had started humming the Mission Impossible theme song under her breath.

Ever since Mr. Perfect-Hair had stopped throwing her in the dungeons, she had been amusing herself by exploring the vast expanses of his underground palace. Legolas had offered to take her outside, but ever since the tree incident, she didn't really feel like it. If she could have been honest with herself, she didn't want to even look at a tree.

Peering around the corner Emma tiptoed out and snuck through a pair of huge wooden doors (it took her a while to open them). Her mouth fell open.

She had happened across the stables.

Emma loved horses. She had always wanted one, but never had enough room. That didn't stop her from taking riding lessons though. She never got very far, but she had learned the basics.

She grinned as she saw all the different horses. Looking in each stall as she walked passed, she talked to each and every one of the horses. At the very end was an absolutely huge stall, in it was the giant elk that his Royal Sassiness had been riding when they first met.

"Oh. It's you," Emma muttered. The elk merely tilted it's head and examined her.

"What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?" The elk snorted and stomped it's foot. Emma rolled her eyes, "I don't have any food for you." The elk snorted again.

"How can you stand being ridden by that stuck up elfy king?" Emma asked conversationally. The elk's ears perked up and it looked over her shoulder, Emma didn't notice and continued talking.

"I mean, he's such an arrogant, annoying, generally mean, grouchy, superfluous; though I don't know why, sparkly robed..." Emma paused to thing of more words to describe the uppity Elvenking.

"Sparkly robed what?"

Emma shrieked and whirled around, barely missing the chest of the very person she had been complaining about. Scowling up at him she said, "Sparkly robed, sneaker up-er on-er person!"

King Sassy-Face looked faintly amused and said, "What a colorful description you paint of my character, Lady Emma. And is sneaker up-er on-er, even a real phrase?"

"Don't Lady Emma me, mister snobby pants! For one, lady just doesn't sound right in front of Emma and anyways, I am not a lady. And no, it's not. I made it up. 'Nuf said." the Elvenking raised an eyebrow, "You look a lady to me..."

"SHUT UP!" Emma yelled.

Thranduil sighed and stepped around her so that he was directly facing his elk. He had long ago given up on receiving any semblance of politeness from this strange elleth. Taking an apple out from the depths of his robe, he fed it to his large beast, animal, pet thing. The elk snapped it up greedily.

Emma walked up next to Thranduil and stared at the majestic beast, animal thing in awe, "What is his name?"

"Tarukka."

"What does that mean?"

"Horned one." '

Emma rolled her eyes, "Figures."

She chanced a glance at him from the corner of her eyes and saw that he looked a little offended.

"What?" she asked defensively.

"You have wounded me deeply!" he said in a mock-hurt voice.

Emma's mouth dropped open, "Oh. My. Gosh."

Thranduil looked a little concerned, "What is it?"

"Y-y-you... you... you..."

Thranduil made a go-on gesture with his hand.

"YOU MADE A JOKE! THE WORLD HAS TURNED UPSIDE DOWN AND IS COMING TO AN END FULL OF DARKNESS AND DESPAIR!" Emma screamed hysterically, before she ran off as fast as her legs could carry her, leaving the shocked and confused Elvenking behind to contemplate the consequences of his actions, along with the muffled thud and yelp that had reached his ears seconds later.

oOo

"Emma, you can't stay cooped up here forever," Miri said in a kind voice. Emma rested her chin on her finger and said, "Hmmmmm, actually, I can."

Emma and Miri had been planning on gong for a walk in the forest, when Emma's nerves got the better of her and she tried to back out of it right as they were about to go out the door.

Miri scowled, grabbed Emma's hand and said sternly, "You are going out there wether you want to or not, young lady!"

Emma was so shocked at Miri's sudden aggressiveness that she didn't notice that they were even outside for a good five minutes. Looking around, she squeaked in alarm and tried to run away.

"Oh no you don't!" Miri grabbed her arm with both hands and hauled in the opposite direction of the palace, Emma was fighting her every step of the way. Soon enough, they were both so tired they just dropped to the ground and sat there panting. After about ten minutes, they were extremely surprised by Legolas striding into the small clearing they had happened to collapse in. He stopped and regarded them with no small amount of surprise, "What are you two doing here?"

"I am being held against my will, she is holding me against my will." Legolas nodded his head slowly. Emma rolled her eyes and flopped onto her back, "Never-mind," she grumbled. Legolas shrugged and pulled himself up onto the first branch of the nearest tree. Emma quickly looked away right before Legolas asked her, "Emma? I have only heard bits and pieces, but I have managed to gather that you climb trees?"

Emma visibly paled, but answered regardless, "Yes, I did." Legolas grinned, "Great! Race you to the top?"

She stiffened, then shook her head.

"Oh, come on! Are you chicken?" Legolas asked teasingly. Emma scowled and stood up saying, "Fine! I'll do it!" She wasn't going to be patronized by some elvish prince! She stood in front of the tree, clearly very apprehensive. Miri was sitting up on the grass, looking very worried, "Emma, maybe you shouldn't do this."

Emma choked back a sob as she remembered the sound her neck had made. Legolas was now looking worried, "Emma-"

"I- I have to go..." Emma choked out. She turned around and raced back to the palace.

When she got into her room, she slammed the door behind her and screamed into her pillow, Why? Why can't I get over this?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, thanks for all the kudos and comments ^_^ I do apologize for this chapter *laughs evilly* Oh and I know I kind of messed up in the Dol Guldur thing, but I like it, so I'm keeping it *shrug*

Emma was woken up the next morning by the sun shining brightly on her face.

"Urgh," Emma groaned as she pulled the covers over her head. She heard the door creak open and groaned again.

"Emma," Miri said tentatively, "It's time to wake up."

"URGH!" she protested.

Miri rolled her eyes and went over to the bed, threw the covers back and crossed her arms, "Wake up."

"Fine." Emma leapt out of the bed and nearly fell over because she got dizzy. Miri rolled her eyes, "Emma, you are too dramatic. Now get dressed."

"Whyyyyyy?" Emma whined.

"Because we are going back into the woods to help decorate for the anniversary of the Necromancer's defeat," Miri said as she dug through Emma's clothing.

"I don't have to climb any tree's do I? And what's a Necromancer?" Emma asked cautiously.

Sighing, Miri pulled out a dress and handed it to Emma, "No, Emma. You do not have to climb any trees and I'll tell you later," she shooed Emma to the bathroom, "Now, go! Hurry up! No time to waste!"

oOo

"For fifty-five years now, the threat of the Necromancer had been eradicated. Our forests are once again, growing green and healthy. The spiders no longer plague us and we have been able to extend out borders nearly to their original size," the Elven king raised his glass, "To Greenwood the Great!"

"To Greenwood the Great!" the hundreds of elves in the clearing echoed back. The elves had been working hard all day on decorating the clearing for this celebration, hundreds of lights were strung in the trees and large tables lined the edges of the clearing, King Sassy-Face had a large throne on a raised platform at one end of the clearing, though it was not nearly as magnificent as the throne in the palace

Emma still didn't know who, or what, the Necromancer was. She looked around the clearing and spotted Miri a little ways away, talking to an elven male. Emma rushed over and grabbed Miri's hand and unceremoniously dragged her over to a tree.

"Tell me now. What. Is. The. Necromancer," she demanded.

Miri sighed, "This will be a very long story..."

Emma crossed her arms, "I like stories."

Shrugging, Miri began the tale, "Thousands of years ago, there was a Maier, called Sauron. He fell from his glory and was consumed by darkness, he forged rings of power, three for the elves, seven for the dwarf lords, and nine for men. But he also forged one for himself, one ring to rule them all. The ring that had complete control over the others. The ring of power.

"There was a great alliance between men and elves, they marched to Mordor, the home of Sauron, to defeat him. They were winning against the forces of the orcs, when Sauron himself joined the battle. Sauron killed Elendil, king of Gondor and broke his sword. Isildur, Elendil's son took up his father's sword and cut the ring from the hand of Sauron. Sauron, we thought, had died.

"Years before, the nine men, to whom Sauron had given the rings, fell under the same spell of greed and darkness that Sauron had and on their passing, their corpses were sealed in the darkness of the fortress of Dol Guldur, which is in the depths of our forest.

"Sauron, returned as nothing but a shadow, an evil power and he made his new home, Dol Guldur, taking the shadowy form of a man and practicing the most evil of spells as the Necromancer. He resurrected the nine men, the Ring-wraiths, the Nazgûl, to assist him in his search for the ring of power, which had been lost by Isildur upon his death. He had made the Greenwood a place of darkness, overrun by his evil forces, the spiders we just barely managed to keep at bay.

"Sauron, was defeated by Mithrandir, or Gandalf the Grey, a wizard of great power, but the Nine, were never found. They were gone from their tombs," Miri finished her story, "Does that answer your question?"

Emma nodded slowly, "So the Nine are still out there?"

"Yes, the Witch King of Angmar is their leader."

"I'm not sure I want to know who he is..."

"You probably don't. Now, this story has depressed me, so I am going to get some wine and I suggest you do the same," Miri said.

"One more question," Emma said quickly, "Is Dol Guldur... still empty? Is there nothing in it now?"

Miri gave her a dark look, "It is still overrun by orcs and other foul creatures that I shall not mention."

Emma swallowed and nodded. Suddenly feeling the need for quiet, she wandered out of the clearing. Losing track of time, she wandered aimlessly for several hours, pondering over the story Miri had told her and picking random flowers. She heard a noise and turned around, noticing that it was almost pitch black. A sense of foreboding settled in her stomach and she started to panic, she did not recognize where she was and no longer heard the sounds of the party, looking up at the sky, she saw that moon up high and realized she must have been wandering for hours.

Another noise made her jump and she turned and faced the direction that it came from... nothing. Suddenly, she was surrounded by the snapping of twigs and guttural growls. Swallowing a scream she slowly back away towards the nearest tree, but before she could reach it, something sharp was pressed to her back and she yelped and darted forward.

Turning around, her shoulders sagged at what she saw and she said despondently, "Oh, crap."

Miri POV

Several hours after she had told her deploring tale and gotten sufficiently inebriated, Miri finally noticed Emma's absence. Looking around, she furrowed her brows when she couldn't see her anywhere.

Wandering to the edge of the clearing, she softly called Emma's name, getting no response, she shrugged. Maybe she's gone back to the palace.

With that false hope lodged in her mind, she returned to the revelries.

The next morning...

Miri walked briskly into Emma's room, only to find that the bed hadn't been slept in. Remembering Emma's disappearance the night before, Miri rushed into the halls and towards the dining hall, hoping against all hope that Emma was in there, eating.

Running in, she saw Emma was nowhere in sight. She could feel the blood draining from her face, when someone bumped into her.

"Excuse me, Lady Mir- what's wrong? You look as if you've seen a ghost." It was Legolas. Maybe he could help.

"Prince Legolas! Emma has gone missing! I have not seen her since last night and her bed has not been slept in!"

Legolas' eyes widened, "Where could she have gone?"

"I think I saw her wandering towards the forest... Oh! Something terrible must have happened!" Miri was very close to tears now.

"I hope not. I shall ask my father if he will allow me to send out a search party for her. We do not want her to accidentally wander into Dol Guldur."

Thranduil POV

Thranduil was lazily reclining at the head of the table, swirling his wine in his goblet with an extremely bored expression on his face. He raised an eyebrow upon seeing his son rushing towards him, looking worried.

"Adar, Emma has gone missing."

Thranduil sat up straight at that declaration, "Since when?"

"Last night, I want to send out a search party to find her. Lady Miri thought that she saw her wandering into the forest," Legolas said quietly, so as not to get the attention of the other elves.

"Remember, do not go anywhere near Dol Guldur, that is an order," Thranduil said sternly. Legolas bowed and quickly walked away.

Thranduil absently rubbed his chin. Emma was a strange elleth. He was not sure if he believed her story about the land called, what was it? Oh yes, Earth, but it was curious none the less. Where could she have wandered off to now, he thought, before he forgot almost completely about it.

Legolas POV

They had been searching for several hours now and still had found nothing. If this turned out to be a false alarm, his father would be furious.

Suddenly, he heard a shout from one of the guards, who as it turns out had found something.

He ran over and his eyes widened.

There on the ground, was a bundle of flowers, part of the skirt of a dress, and a small pool of blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehehehehehehehehe.. HAHAHAHHAHAHAAH. MUAHAHAHHAHAHAHA.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go guys! Thanks for the comments and kudos! ^_^ The chapters shall be a bit more serious, but not for long... LOL I seem to be incapable of long periods of angst :P

What woke Emma up, was the smell. She couldn't quit place her finger on it, but it smelled like a mixture of dirty socks, rotten eggs, and dead birds. Then she registered that she was being carried. Oh no, not carried as a damsel in distress would be, but as a sack of potatoes. Then the sound filtered in, screeches and growling, mixed with some foul tongue that she couldn't place.

Finally the pain registered. The back of her head felt like it had been split with an ax, she could tell that her hair was matted with blood and for some reason, the only thought she had was, How am I EVER going to get these knots out of my hair?

Opening her eyes, she had to bite her tongue very hard to keep the scream that threatened to spill out at bay. She was surrounded by foul creatures, they must be orcs, though she had never seen one and when she squinted into the shadows, she could make out the huge shadows of… were those giant spiders?

This time she did scream. She stopped when she realized that the orc who was carrying her had said something, "Shut your little trap!" it growled menacingly. Emma gulped and tried not to remember how she had gotten into the predicament that she was in.

Flashback

"Oh, crap."

Behind her, no, all around her, were orcs. Their eyes glowing eerily in the dim light. Emma screamed and felt something slam into the back of her head. Her vision exploded into stars and her last coherent thought was, "I am so going to eat grass if Sassyface even thinks about rescuing me."

End Flashback

She snorted a little at the thought of His Royal Sassiness rescuing her. At least she had her thought to amuse her. Taking in her surroundings, Emma wondered where these stupid orcs were dragging her. Probably some filthy orc camp, she thought with a scowl. Suddenly she was dumped onto the ground and her head got another nasty surprise, unfortunately, she wasn't able to black out this time.

She saw that the orcs were arguing with one another in a strange, foul sounding language. After about five minutes, the leader (well she assumed he was the leader, he was the biggest), whipped a knife out and held it to the throat of an orc considerably smaller than himself. After a short standoff, the smaller one backed away and the orc that she assumed must have been the one carrying her approached her, hauling her back over his shoulder. Oh, how she wished she wasn't tied up, that would have been the perfect opportunity to escape.

Legolas POV

He stared at the pool of blood for a moment and then whipped into action, ordering the guards to pick up the trail. It did not take long. For two long hours they followed it and when the got to the edge of the border, Legolas felt his heart sink at what he saw before him.

Closing his eyes briefly, knowing he probably would not ever see Emma again. He signaled the guards to draw back. He remained looking towards where he knew she was taken a moment longer, before he too, turned away.

Emma POV

After another thirty minutes or so, Emma was set on her feet and shoved roughly forward. Being rather smart, Emma immediately got the message that she was to walk. Turning around, even though she had never seen it, she immediately recognized the fortress that lay before her.

Dol Guldur.

It was huge. The very look of it emanated darkness and despair. The giant ruins were old and grey, slowly crumbling as time took it's tole on it. Emma sensed a darkness seeping out of the very stones and shivered.

She was shoved along the long bridge and it took her a few minutes to realize that she was shaking from fear. She couldn't help but remember the little Miri had told her about the Nazgul and prayed that their wasn't one residing in the fortress. At least she knew that the Necromancer wasn't here. As small as it was, it was a relief.

Two huge doors swung open and she was roughly shoved through. As much as she disliked it, she was not about to protest to the shoving. Her head hurt enough as it was.

The leader orc stepped forward and said something in a loud voice. A sudden chill swept through the giant courtyard that they were standing in, even the orcs were affected by it. Emma knew her hands were now very visibly shaking. Looking down at them (luckily they were tied in front of her) she realized that she was still clutching a flower. It seemed that the darkness was already withering the poor thing.

A sense of pure dread swept over her and she looked up. She felt every last bit of blood drain from her face at what she saw.

There, standing in front of her, was a figure that emanated more evil than all of Dol Guldur. Though it's face was hooded (she highly doubted it had one), she could feel it's eyes burning into her.

She knew, just as she had known that this fortress of doom was Dol Guldur, that this was…

That this was a Nazgul.

Nobody in particular's POV. Let's just call it the wall's POV.

"Ada! I do not understand! We must go rescue Emma! Not attend some council!"

"If it is as you say, there is nothing more that we can do for her. Unless of course she found a way out herself… she seemed smart enough. We cannot approach Dol Guldur yet. The time is not right," Thranduil replied calmly.

"Ada, how can you do this? She is-" Legolas continued treading the dangerous waters that his father's tone of voice warned against.

"ENOUGH!" Thranduil roared.

Legolas was shocked into silence.

"You will do as I say! Not only am I your king, but your father as well! You will attend the council Lord Elrond has called andyou will immediately drop the subject of invading Dol Guldur to rescue one, useless, ELLETH!"

By the time he was done ranting, Thranduil was breathing quite heavily and if looks could kill, Legolas would have been nothing but a puddle on the floor.

Legolas bowed and said in a chilly tone, "I will depart immediately, Father."

Thranduil watched his son leave the room and rubbed his face. He walked over to his desk and poured himself a goblet of wine. They could not risk an invasion on Dol Guldur. The time was not yet right. Though he sensed that it would be soon. He left the room, feeling tired and weighed down by the burdens that lay on his ancient shoulders.

Now alone, the wall mentally sighed to itself. Nobody ever talked to it… it was just another unnoticed part of the palace that was taken for granted by everybody. Mentally scoffing, it pictured what their reaction would be if it decided to suddenly collapse in on itself.

It would probably be rather amusing, at first. But then they would just treat it like garbage. No, it decided that it would stay standing for now, thank you very much.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! Thanks for the comments and stuff!! I really need to start responding, and resolve to do so from now on *stern nod*
> 
> Enjoy!

The Nazgul slowly approached Emma, who was now visibly shaking with fear. It stopped in front of her and hissed. This took Emma off guard and she did a double take, saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you, the big scary guy dressed in a big scary black robe, just emit, the sound of a cat?"

Ignoring her, the Nazgul addressed the orc leader who was behind her, in a low, hissing voice, "What isssss thisssss?"

"It is a she-elf who we found wandering in the forest, my lord," the orc leader said with a bow. Emma was starting to break out in a cold sweat.

"Why did you bring it here, inssssstead of killing it?" the Nazgul said, looking at Emma.

"My lord, we have been getting bored around here lately and I thought, since it's been a while since we heard some nice screams, that we could keep this one to play with," the orc leader said, grinning evilly at Emma.

She bit back the scream that had been building in her throat. I'm done for now… Nobody is going to rescue me and now I'm gonna die… Peachy… just peachy.

The Nazgul sighed and said, "Very well, as long as it will keep you rabble sssssatisssssfied." With that, it turned and walked/drifted away. Emma slowly turned around and saw that every single one of the orcs were staring at her, "Now, wait a minute, I'm sure we can all work out a logical solution…" she began, but slowly petered off when she saw the giant whip that the leader unhooked from his belt. All the orcs took a step forward and Emma took a step back, holding her hands out in a defensive position. Making a split second decision, Emma spun on her heel and ran as fast as she could.

Nazgul POV

Lurking in the shadows, the Nazgul observed the she-elf as she finally tripped and fell, the orcs swarmed around her. Her screams faded into the distance as they carried her to the lower levels of Dol Guldur.

"Where in Mordor did you get a she-elf?"

The Nazgul (whose name was actually Howard) twitched slightly. The Witch King had a rather nasty habit of randomly popping into the other Nazgul's heads and inquiring what on Middle-Earth they were doing.

Howard replied icily, "The orcs dragged her in from the forest."

"No matter. Begin gathering the forces, I believe that the elves are plotting something. I shall personally check your progress in a year." Howard felt the Witch-King (whose real name was Tim) leave his head (finally). He sighed, hating the fact that he was to be subjected to the presence of the Witch-King for any extended period of time. Of course, this was probably by order of the Dark Lord (not Voldemort, the other one) and he knew that there would be consequences if he crossed the fine line of complaining and constructive criticism, so he decided to keep his mouth shut.

Swiping his finger over the edge of the wall, he mentally tutted to himself. He really was getting out of practice. He wandered into the closet and took out a feather duster and began dusting.

Stupid Sauron just couldn't resist making him the resident housekeeper of Dol Guldur, could he?

Once again, we find ourselves back at Emma's POV (I was feeling generous)

3 hours later

Emma beat against the wall of her tiny cell and cried.

Everything hurt, not only from the running, but the orcs had dragged a knife blade down each of her arms and they were now hurting terribly. She could see now that there was no way out. At least there was not some kind of mental torture. For that she could be grateful.

"Do not think that so soon."

Emma looked around wildly and screamed, the voice of the Nazgul had been in her head. She mentally face-palmed herself. She should never have thought that.

"Please, please just leave me alone…" she sobbed.

"Oh, but why should I let my servants have all the fun? It gets quite boring here…Open your eyes."

Emma opened her eyes and gasped, she was in a beautiful field, full of flowers. She slowly turned around, wondering if she had dreamt about Dol Guldur. Suddenly she noticed smoke in the distance and saw a giant fire that spread as far as the eye could see, roaring towards her at an alarming rate. She stood frozen for a few moments, before turning and running. She felt a horrible heat on her back and glanced back, the fire was only a few feet away now.

She felt the ground leave her and looked forward again, screaming when she saw that she was falling down a black pit, falling… falling.

She sat up in her cell.

"That, was only the beginning," the voice of the Nazgul said.

She heard the orcs approaching her cell and realized that if she was dreaming, this wasn't a dream…

It was a nightmare.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey, sorry it took so long O_O Stuff has been going on...  
> BUT. This chapter may tweak your feels and contains mild descriptions of torture... *sigh*

~One year later…

Emma started awake and groaned. Everything hurt. Trying to bite back her tears, she eased herself into a sitting position, leaning her forehead against the wall and trying not to stretch the long cuts on her back to much. She closed her eyes tightly as unbidden memories of whips rose to the front of her mind.

She was sure that she looked terrible, covered in scars and barely scabbed cuts. She knew enough to know that most of it was infected as well. She wouldn't be surprised if she had a fever.

Compared to this, she would have taken the break up with Jared any time. Sniffling a little, she tried to remember her beautiful forest, but it was hazy… everything was hazy. Back in Montana, where she had lived, Emma had nobody but Jared and nothing but her house, beautiful view, and her forest.

Her parents had died in a house fire when she was eighteen, being an only child, she had been left on her own. She had gone to live with her godparents, whom she had never really gotten along with and as soon as she turned eighteen, she left.

Now, stuck in this rotting hole of a dungeon, she even missed them. Heck, she even missed that stupid sassy-faced Elvenking. She snorted at that thought. He probably had forgotten that she existed already.

The year had been full of pain, the orcs would bring her things that barely qualified as food and water, but she consumed it anyways, determined not to let the orcs beat her. She didn't plan on going down without a fight.

Of course, the hallucinations that the Nazgul plagued her with were infinitely worse. Visions of her home, burning, of Jared, laughing at her as she watched him with that other woman. She had even watched her parents die. Oddly enough, there were also visions of Mirkwood, burning and of King Sparkly-Robes root palace, burning. It was all burning, burning, burning.

Her head snapped up when she heard the door to the torture rooms slam and sound of stomping feet. Her body betrayed her and despite her resolve, she began to tremble. The door to her cell swung open and the orc who seemed to torture her the most, stood there, leering at her. Two orc cronies came up and hoisted her to her feet by grabbing her arms. She couldn't help the whimper of pain that escaped as the barely scabbed wounds on her arms stretched uncomfortably.

When she saw what was waiting in the torture room this time, she began to shake uncontrollably.

"Don't worry, she's got orders not to kill you. Just a little mauling," one of the orcs cackled, "We may actually give you a little break after this one. Don't want you dying to soon now, do we?"

Emma whimpered, but didn't tear her eyes away from the giant black wolf-like creature that stood, growling. It's burning yellow eyes, fixated on her. The orcs dropped her and she just managed to fall on her knees and not her face.

She heard the orcs retreating and almost stopped breathing when she realized that the only light in the room was coming from the eyes of the creature in front of her and the crack under the door behind her. She heard a whisper of movement and then hot breath shot down her neck. Unable to keep it back an longer, Emma screamed.

She felt jaws clamp down on her shoulder and almost blacked out from the pain. She faintly heard more movement and saw the yellow of the eyes slowly prowling around her.

At times like this, Emma wondered if it was worth fighting it. She knew that it would be easy to give up. It would be so easy, the pain would go away and she might even see her parents again.

But then she remembered something that her father had once told her when she had returned home from school, crying because she was being bullied by a group of rather large tenth graders.

She could still hear his voice and it gave her the strength to hold on, "Don't ever give up, Emma. That's letting them win, showing them you're weak. Be strong. Even if you lose in the end, don't ever go down without a fight. If you go cry in a corner now, what are you going to do when you're surrounded by something worse than bullies, and there are no corners to cry in?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EXCUSE ME!! DO I HAZ YOUR ATTENTION PLEAZ. THANKZ. THERE IS ANOTHER CHAPTER- I AM POSTING ANOTHER CHAPTER RIGHT AFTER THIS. DON'T LEAVE. *waves arms*
> 
> Rousdower out_


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) Thanks for reading everyone!!

~Nazgul POV~

Howard hissed as he heard the screech of the Fellbeast that signaled the arrival of the Witch King (or Tim, if you prefer). He swept out of the entrance and prowled up to the Witch King, who merely regarded him silently.

They just stood there, looking at each other, for a good ten minutes, before the Witch King finally said, "You've been dusting, again. Haven't you?"

Howard just nodded, mutely.

"Are the troops in order?" the Witch King asked.

Howard nodded again, before he peered around the Witch King's shoulder at the Fellbeast, who was eying some of his orcs, hungrily, "Digby's looking good."

The Witch King turned around and regarded his pet with a sense of pride, "Yes, he is having a field day with all of the fighting going on," he whistled, "Come here, Digby, come here boy!"

Digby stopped eying the orcs and bounded over, "Who's a good boy, huh?" the Witch King said affectionately, scratching the Fellbeast's neck. Howard just silently shook his head in disapproval.

The Witch King straightened himself and his robes before saying, sternly, "I believe the elves may be up to something, be wary."

He then proceeded to examine the troops, with Howard silently trailing behind him, feather duster clutched in a vice-like grip.

A few months later…

Howard mounted his Fellbeast (whose name was Trumpy) and with a few extra commands to the orc chieftan, took off in the direction of the Black Gate.

He had been summoned by Sauron wilst he had been right in the middle of multitasking; dusting the parlor and torturing the she-elf's mind. Apparently there was a miniscule army marching towards the Black Gate and he had to assist in it's eradication. He shrugged to himself.

At least he gets to beat up something, housekeeping was becoming boring.

~~In everyone's favorite Elvenking's castle…

Thranduil sighed as he looked out his window at the setting sun. The different colors merged into a beautiful shade of red and he looked down at his wine goblet, comparing the two shades.

He and the Lord and Lady of Lothlorien, had been preparing to storm Dol Guldur and rid the Greenwood of it's darkness for good. He found his thoughts drifting to the young elleth who had been taken to Dol Guldur, it had been over a year and a half since she had been captured. If were to be honest, he did not really care all that much, as beautiful as she was, she had been extremely rude to him.

Some part deep inside of him, hoped she was still alive, that maybe she had survived and that they would be able to help her…

Shaking his head a little, he refocused his thoughts on the matter at hand. He had his troops armed and ready to march as soon as the Lady told him when. He scowled to himself. He really did not like having to wait for others to give him the order to march. But it was necessary.

~~Somewhere in between Lothlorien and Smirkwood…

Lady Galadriel looked over to her husband and he gave an almost imperceptible nod, before turning and signaling to their Marchwarden, who in turn signaled the scouts to move ahead.

"Should I tell him that we are nearly in position?" Lady Galadriel asked Celeborn.

He nodded and she closed her eyes and reached out with her mind.

~~Aaaaaaand, back in Smirkwood…

Thranduil looked up from his wine glass and gazed unseeingly into the horizon as the melodic voice of the White Lady drifted through his mind.

~It is time…~


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go!! ^_^

Emma blinked groggily as she tried to shake the sleep off. This was the first time that she had gotten more than two hours of sleep and she vaguely wondered what was keeping her oh-so-wonderful jailers. Eventually, she registered that their was a rather strange noise drifting down the staircase.

She moved over to the door to her cell and pressed her ear to it. After a short time, she was able to identify the screeches of orcs, but also the clashing of weapons. Must be some brawl. They don't usually use their weapons, Emma thought. Incapable of walking, she crawled over to the corner of her cell and leaned against the wall, trying to avoid jostling all the parts of her that were injured (few were not).

Suddenly a cacophony of screeches broke through her near total silence. Two orcs bounded down the stairs and over to her cell. Out of instinct, Emma pressed herself up against the wall. The smaller of the two went in and roughly grabbed her, effectively hauling her off the floor. Knowing that it was useless to protest, she just let them drag her out. She was forced to her knees and the larger orc stepped in front of her after taking a furtive glance back at the staircase. The smaller orc, who was now positioned behind her, grabbed a fistful of her hair and wrenched her head back, she couldn't help the squeak of protest that escaped her lips and was surprised when the orcs showed no reaction to it. Then she couldn't hold back her joy when she saw what the larger orc was holding, preparing to swing at her neck.

Oh, how many times she had dreamed of just dying, being released from the pain and suffering. It's not that she really wanted to die, she would rather live, but not like this, in constant torture. She would also never kill herself, couldn't dream of it. She wouldn't have the guts to do it anyways. Not to mention that it was morally wrong.

Still, she couldn't help the giddy feeling that welled up inside her as she saw the ax twitch towards her neck.

oOo

Thranduil drew his sword as he walked across the long bridge of Dol Guldur. He heard the alarms being raised, but did not really care that the enemey was alerted to their presence. He sensed the dark magic protecting the entrance as they approached it and held his palm up, facing the gate and reached for the flow of light inside of him. He sensed the Marchwarden doing the same next to him, though his assistance was not really needed.

He felt the shield of dark magic crumble away and proceeded forward. As soon as they entered, they were bombarded by orcs and wargs and orcs riding wargs and… was that a posessed rat? Thranduil shook his head and out of the corner of his eye saw a flash of bright red hair and knew that Tauriel had joined the fray, he smirked and in one fluid movement, leapt into the middle of the battle, sword swinging in around him like a whirlwind.

oOo

Tauriel twirled in a whirl of blades, orcs falling left and right and all the while, she was keeping an eye on her king, who was merely a blur of platinum and crimson, piling up even more bodies then she. Out of the corner of the eye she wasn't using to watch the Elvenking, she saw two orcs disappear down a staircase. She leapt after them, felling more orcs as she went.

As she crept down the stairs after them, she took her bow off her back and notched an arrow. Peering around the corner, she nearly froze at what she saw.

The two orcs were standing in the middle of the dungeons, one had the head of an… an elf maiden forced back and the other was just swing the ax towards her neck. Moving faster than one would think possible, Tauriel aimed and shot the orc holding the ax and then the other. The elf maiden gasped and fell forward on her hands.

Tauriel moved quickly forward and kneeled in front of her. She gasped when she saw who it was.

It was the mysterious elleth that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere in their forest… and then disappeared. Though Tauriel had seen her only a few times, she was not one to forget a face.

The poor girl was covered in barely scabbed over wounds and cuts that were clearly infected. She wouldn't look up and was staring resolutely at the ground between her hands.

"It's all right, we're here to help," Tauriel said in a soothing voice.

The girl's head snapped up and she stared at Tauriel like she had never seen another elf before.

"A-are you real?" the girl said in a hoarse whisper, "You aren't another, h-hallucination are you?"

Tauriel shook her head and said, "I understand that you probably want to leave here as soon as possible, but it may be best if you stay here for a little while…" Tauriel trailed off when she saw that the girl (whose name she couldn't recall) shaking her head as tears slowly dripped down her face.

"This isn't real… it isn't real… don't believe it… don't believe it… don't…" and then she promptly passed out.. Tauriel stared at the prone form of the elleth with wide eyes.

She lifted her head when she heard one of the elves calling her name. She replied and two sets of footsteps came down the stairs. She turned her head and saw that one of the elves had frozen staring at the girl with wide eyes.

He rushed forward and knelt next to the girls head, his hand hovering over her, as if unsure where to start. Finally he settled on trying to wake her up. From the way he was acting, Tauriel guessed that he knew her, somehow.

Tauriel was distracted by the elleth's moaning as her eyes fluttered open.

The girl's eyes locked on to the elf hovering above her and her she said in slight awe, "Carl?"

Tauriel did a double take, last time she checked, this elf's name was not called Carl, but 'Carl' grinned and said, "Yes, it's me. You are going to be alright, Emma."

She smiled wryly and said, "No, you can't fool me. I know none of this is real."

A brief flash of confusion flashed through his eyes, but it was quickly replaced with horror. Her mind connected the dots shortly after and she to felt horrified at what this elleth had gone through.

Carl gently lifted her in his arms and Emma (as 'Carl' had called her) buried her face in his shoulder, to hide the disappointed tears that were starting to drip down her face. When they reached the top of the stairs, she saw that the battle had ended and the elves were starting to cross the bridge back to the other side. The last part of there plan was all up to Lady Galadriel.

Emma looked up at the elf carrying her and said, "I can walk now."

He opened his mouth to protest, but she gave him puppy eyes as she whimpered, "Please…" Sighing, he set her delicately on her feet. She swayed slightly, but steadied herself, using Carl as a handhold. She turned to him and grinned a little, before throwing her arms around him in rather weak hug. He smile softly as he returned it.

Tauriel Thranduil in off to the right, wiping his sword off. The Elvenking turned to them, but when he saw Emma, he froze much like Carl had, though he managed to keep his face mostly calm. Mostly. He slowly approached and looked down at the girl in Carl's arms.

oOo

Thranduil cleaned his sword off on his cloak and looked around for Tauriel, he saw her tell-tale hair give an unruly flash and turned. He saw one of his guards supporting the small figure of an.. an elleth? How could an elleth be here in Dol Guldur? Let alone survive?

He felt his body lock up briefly. It couldn't be… he watched her turn around. His eyes widened a very tiny fraction. How, could she have survived? It's been more than a year…

He slowly walked over and saw that she was looking up at him and shielding her eyes, he raised an eyebrow, clearly sending her a look that asked 'What are you looking at?'

Just as he thought she would, she supplied an explanation, "Your hair. It hurts to look at it. To bright. Put it away," she was now covering both of her eyes.

Thranduil felt himself smirk slightly as he wondered if anything could change this girl, "Come now. Let's not be to over-dramatic," he said in a lofty voice.

She uncovered her eyes and looked at him with a strange expression. He raised his eyebrow again and was about to say something else when suddenly, her arms were around his neck. There was a collective gasp from the elves around them, but he didn't particularly care, focusing instead on gently returning the hug and trying to hear what Emma was saying, "I can't believe I've even missed your sassy remarks, your sassy face and your overall sassy demeanor."

Suddenly she froze and backed away, looking around with a slightly wild look, saying in a whisper, "This isn't real, this isn't real, it can't be," she buried her face in her hands and continued in unintelligible mutters. The guard slowly reached out to comfort her, but she wrenched away, curling up on the ground and sobbing.

Thranduil, seeing that nobody was going to do what obviously needed to be done, turned to the guard standing closest to him and told him, in a low voice, to bring his elk. He then, knelt next to Emma, feeling strangely concerned (he wasn't sure why he even bothered helping her, Valar forbid he had a soft spot for her…) and gently touched the side of her face, murmuring an elvish spell and seconds later, she was still and sleeping.

His elk approached and stopped next to him, kneeling down. He turned to the guard who had brought Emma up and told him to put Emma on and to wait there, before he walked away to the Marchwarden.

Haldir turned to him and bowed, "My lord?"

"Is everything prepared for the Lady?" Thranduil questioned, looking down at the other elf rather imperiously.

"Yes, my lord."

"Very well, let us go." Thranduil walked back to his elk and mounted up behind the sleeping Emma, arranging her position so that it was more comfortable for both of them, namely, her leaning against his chest with his arms around her waist, resolutely ignoring the stares he was getting.

They crossed the bridge of Dol Guldur and were greeted by the Lady of Light. She smiled serenely as she waited for all of the elves to finish crossing the bridge. Then, positioning herself so that she was facing the great fortress, she spread her arms wide and the powerful words that would transform the fortress into nothing more but rubble, her voice magnified by the sheer potency of the words.

Minutes later, the fortress came crashing down with a great crashing and booming. The elves let out a great cheer (except for the important ones, they were too special…) as they watched it disintegrate before their eyes. Once the dust had settled, they turned away and began the trek back to the halls of the Elvenking, where a great feast was being prepared.

Thranduil glanced down at the sleeping girl that was technically in his arms. He remembered the haunted look in her eyes and realized that she had probably changed more than anyone, including herself, had realized and that, knowing her, she was probably going to try to keep all the pain and doubt she was feeling bottled up inside, until it ate her away. Something inside him, for some reason, felt pain at realizing this.

And though he didn't know it, that same something inside him, resolved that it wasn't going to let that happen.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! I haven't been on my computer much recently...

Fluffiness.

Soft, squishy mattress. Soft, squishy pillow.

Wait.

What?

I was in a dungeon… in Dol Guldur… the did not have anything that was soft and squishy. It must be that stupid Nazgul.

Emma cracked an eye open and closed it again, before doing a double take. She opened both eyes and stared around her. Her last memories started to leak in. She started grinning and tried to sit up, but that only resulted in a gasp of pain. Well, at least she knew that she wasn't completely healed. But she definitely felt so much better. Except for the fact that she was starving.

"Erm, hello?" Emma called out. She winced as her stomach growled. If somebody didn't show soon, she was going to drag herself out of bed and to the kitchens regardless of the amount of pain it caused.

The door suddenly flew open and a frazzled looking Miri appeared.

"Emma! You're awake!" Miri exclaimed.

"Yeah… erm.. Food?" Emma said hopefully.

Miri slapped a hand to her forehead and said with exasperation, "Ugh! I cannot believe that I forgot that! You probably haven't eaten well at all, poor thing!" With that, she dashed out of the room.

"Somebody's mother hen button got stuck in extreme…" Emma muttered to herself as she sank back on the pillows. She couldn't keep the grin off her face, forgetting how good it was to be back in this forest.

She closed her eyes and leaned back with a sigh. I wonder where his royal Sassiness is… Her last memory struck her and her eyes flew open again and she felt copious amounts of blood rush to her cheeks.

I.

Hugged.

His Royal.

Smugness.

Why did I do that? I don't even like the man… erm.. elf. I don't like his attitude, his clothes, his face (as handsome as it is), or his eyebrows (nice as they are). Ooooo, I'm never going to be able to look at him the same again. Wait, why not? It's not like I LIKE him. I mean I like him in my own way but not THAT way. Uuuugh. He's not going to let me forget this either…

"What's so embarrassing?"

Emma shrieked and dove under her sheets, one thought going through her head, He's here…

"Is there something wrong?" his voice said, much closer than before.

"Back off, oh royal pain in the- HEY!"

What happened to interrupt her, was the impertinent king, lifting up a corner of her sheet and peering under it with a rather amused expression. Emma jerked it down and stuck her head out the top to glare at him.

And there he was in all his, twig crowned, sparkly robed, smug expressioned, glory. His look of amusement faded when Emma started laughing hysterically.

"What is it?" he asked waspishly.

She pointed at his head and choked out, "Your crown… flowers on your… crown… FLOWERS ON YOU CROWN! PINK ONES!" She started to laugh so hard that tears rolled down her face.

Thranduil crossed his arms and scowled at her, "I fail to see the amusement in this. It is symbolic of spring and new life."

Emma calmed down a little and looked back up at him only to burst into a fresh fit of giggles, "Please tell me you don't wear that all spring?" she managed to gasp, before starting to giggle uncontrollably.

"Unfortunately, yes," he said.

"Unfortunately for whom? You? Or everybody who is forced to look at it?"

At that comment, Thranduil looked so offended that Emma actually felt bad for what she said. But she wasn't about to apologize to him, ooooh no. Instead, she opted for sticking her hand out and saying in a demanding tone, "Hand it over."

"Hand what over?" Thranduil said innocently.

"You know what, the crown. Give it here," she said with a scowl.

"I don't trust you," he said bluntly.

"Guess what?"

Thranduil quirked an eyebrow

" I. Don't. Care. Now, are you gonna hand it over, or am I going to have to steal it while you are sleeping?"

Thranduil sighed and took off his crown. Emma couldn't help but notice that not a single hair went out of place when he did this. How does he get it so perfect and se- DO NOT FINISH THAT THOUGHT EMMA FIELDS. WE COVERED THIS. NO. NO. NO. He slowly handed it to her and if he noticed the faint blush on her cheeks, he didn't show it.

She carefully took it in her hands and examined it. To her surprise, it appeared that the flowers were quite literally growing out of the wood of the crown. She sighed and saw the mental image that she had had of the flowers, slowly crumble into dust. Holding the crown now, she could see it clear as day. If only it could stay this way. It wouldn't look so weird at least.

She looked up to find Thranduil staring at her and the crown with an almost…. shocked expression. Why would he be shocked? She looked down and she dropped the crown on the bed in shock.

The flowers were rearranging themselves to fit her mental image.

She slowly looked up and met Thranduil's eyes, "I… I… don't know how this happened.." she stammered out.

He shook his head slightly, "I have heard that some elves have the power to persuade the plant's to grow a certain way, but I never did believe it.."

Emma sighed in relief, "Ok, so I haven't turned into Poison Ivy or anything." She saw Thranduil looking at her with an odd expression. "Oh, never mind."

She carefully handed the crown back to him and he examined it a moment before putting it on. "There, that looks much better," she said smugly.

Thranduil rolled his eyes and they had a moment of awkward silence. Thankfully, it was broken by Miri, who bustled in with a tray of food.

"Here, Emma. I'm sorry, I should have brought it- Oh! Your majesty!" Miri bowed slightly and Thranduil inclined his head the tiniest fraction before he said, "I was just leaving."

Emma and Miri watched him leave and there was a moment of silence before Miri said, "I'm glad he fixed those flowers. They were getting to be rather ghastly looking."

Emma looked at Miri from the corner of her eye and unable to contain it, burst into fits of laughter.


	15. Chapter 15

Emma hummed to herself as she stared into the fountain. The past few days had been hellish, trying not to think of the… incident. She'd been having terrible nightmares, resulting in very little sleep each night.

Shaking her head furiously, Emma tried to think of something else. Racking her brain, she remembered Miri saying that there had been a party thrown while she was unconscious.

"Oh, darn.." she mumbled to herself. She had been going to tease the Blingking about it when he had visited her. She giggled as she remembered the flowers on his crown. She idly wondered where he was, she hadn't seen him since he had visited her.

"What is so amusing?" came a voice from behind her. Emma shrieked and jerked away from the voice, which belonged to none other than the object of her thoughts, but unfortunately, away from the voice was into the water of the fountain. She came up spluttering and sent her very special and unique 'Death Glare Equipped With Lasers and Flame-Throwers and Ice Beams and Generally Fear Inducing Images' at the laughing Elvenking.

It had no apparent effect.

Scowling, she climbed out of the fountain and started wringing out her hair while she verbally slapped him around, "You… you are an unbelievably, idiotic, cruel, ostentatious, full-of-yourself, sassy, conceited, uppity, handsome excuse for a stupid, twig-crown wearing, Elven-wafflish-king!"

Still slightly chuckling the Sparkly Robed Wonder-Elf said, "I would throw you into the dungeons for that."

"No you wouldn't," Emma said confidently.

"Yes, I would."

"Wouldn't."

"Would."

"Wouldn't."

"You may want to change out of that now slightly transparent dress."

"Woul- wait…. What?" Emma looked down at herself and shrieked again, "Turn around!"

The Elvenking rolled his eyes, "It's not that transparent."

"It's transparent enough," Emma moaned, "Hand me my coat-cloak-thingy."

"It's called an outer robe," King Sassyface said as he handed it to her.

"Whatever, your royal King Arthurean-Blingness."

"What?" he asked, more than a little confused.

"It's for me know and you to… not know," Emma said as she swept passed Royal Sassiness fell into step beside her.

"Why are you following me?" she snapped.

"I'm not following you. I'm going to the throne-room," Thranduil said innocently.

"Pfft, yeah, right," Emma snorted. They walked into a darker corridor and Emma felt her breathing pick up speed a little. She felt closed in and suddenly needed to get out. And fast.

"Lady Emma? Are you well?" Thranduil's inquiry went unheard as Emma broke into a run. He raised an eyebrow, she must've really wanted to escape his presence.

Emma came to a stop in a corridor that was far more open than the last one. What was that? her panicked thoughts kept repeating.

"Are you well, Lady Emma?"

Emma turned around and a huge grin broke out as she saw the elven guard that she had designated as 'Carl'

"Carl!" she cried happily. Throwing her arms around him she gave him a huge hug. Over his shoulder, she saw none other than 'Zippy'.

"Ziiiiiiiippy!" she squealed, "It's been aaaaaaaages!" She hopped over to Zippy and gave him a hug as well. He reluctantly returned it.

Carl grinned at the look on Zippy's face, "Lady Emma, we've been assigned to keep watch over you during your stay here."

"Hmph. It's just like Mr. McSasserson to still not trust me… but at least I have my bodyguard buddies back!" she said cheerfully.

Carl cleverly kept the reason for their guarding her to himself. She probably wouldn't take it well that the reason was more out of worry for her mental and physical health than out of trust.

He sincerely feared for the Elvenking's safety if she found out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the wait guys...


	16. Chapter 16

"I'm going slightly maaaaad, I'm going slightly maaaaaad! It's finally happened, haaaaappened. It's finally happened, oh yes. I'm slightly maaaaaaaad!" Emma belted out the words of her favorite song as she waltzed down the corridor. Continuing her song, she found herself in the throne room, with all of the elves staring at her.

The Elvenking was lounging in his throne and she noted that he really didn't look that surprised. Everything was quiet for a few moments before the Elvenking spoke up, "I think that you are much more than slightly mad and I think it happened quite a while ago." With that, he turned back to the advisor he had been talking to.

Emma gaped at him and then huffing, she stomped out of the room, her mind furiously working at a way to prank the high and mighty Elvenking of Everybling.

Ok, not her best name...

Thranduil POV (you're welcome)

Thranduil, very tired after a day of meetings, was walking down the corridor to his chambers. He had received word that Legolas would be arriving home, shortly after Emma had barged in singing that ridiculous song.

He opened the door and walked in. He froze. Something was very off here… He looked carefully around, but finding nothing, thought he was a little over-aware. He took off his crown and set it on a table, before going into the bathroom and shutting the door.

Now back to Emma's…

Emma quietly crept out from under the bed and over to the table he had put his crown on. With a devious grin, she lifted it gingerly and started to creep over towards the door leading into the corridor. She blushed furiously when she heard the water from the bath slosh around a bit.

When she got out, she released a breath. Grinning down at the crown she held in her hands, she snuck towards the throne room.

Once she got there, she stuck her head around the corner and grinned at the sight of an empty room. Walking towards the throne, she looked for footholds. She started climbing up (she was at least a foot shorter than his Royal Sassiness, so the throne may not look big while he is sitting in it, but in reality, it's pretty huge. To her at least...) and once she reached the top she looped the crown over one of the farthest points of the antlers.

Emma looked down and her impish grin faded as her face grew pale. Flashbacks of climbing the tree in the forest hit her and she started to shake. Clinging to the antler for dear life, she attempted a weak call for help. Unfortunately, no sound came out.

Aaaaaaand back to Thrandy… (again, you're welcome)

Thranduil emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed, though his hair was still rather wet. Casually glancing to where his crown had rested, he continued towards his study when he froze and did a double take.

Slowly he turned again and stared at the table his crown had been on. His eyes narrowed as one thought popped into his head.

Emma.

It is actually a rather nice name… wait… what? Shaking his head a little, Thranduil thought of where the little imp could have put it. Deciding he could use a walk, he went to locate her himself. At least that's what his head was telling him. This was, what? The third time since she was returned that he had actively gone to seek her out? Ignoring that thought, the Elvenking began his search for the crown (or at least that's what his head said he was looking for).

His feet carried him to the throne room and he was greeted with a rather amusing sight.

Emma was clinging to one of the antlers on his throne, she appeared to be unable to climb down. And there was his crown, on one of the farthest points of the antler.

So it was her…

With a sigh, he walked over to gloat at her predicament.

His brow furrowed (N- Sorry, I couldn't find a better phrase…) when he saw the tears that were silently falling. He saw that she had quite a death-grip on the antler and he remembered her problem with trees. Rolling his eyes, his purpose changed from gloating to assistance.

Emma… again.

Tears were now falling and all of the bad thing that had happened to her (understatement of the century) rushed out of the door that she had successfully locked them behind.

"How… did you get up there?"

Awwwwww, great. Now his royal sassiness has come to gloat.

She tried to glare at him, but she didn't seem to have full control over her body. She had tried countless times to get off the antler, but it wasn't working.

"Are you in need of assistance?"

Oh, he is such a smug…. urg.

Her voice still seemed stuck and she knew that she probably looked pitiful, but now that the floodgates of her emotions had been released, she was probably going to be in this pitiful state for a while.

She noticed that the Elvenking was approaching her. He walked up the dais and stood there, staring at her. Was that… concern? If she wasn't so scared, Emma would've burst out laughing at the mere thought of him being concerned.

Once he was standing in front of his throne, he crossed his arms, "Well, what are you waiting for? Get down," he said. He really could be bossy at times…

Emma shook her head furiously.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but seemed to rethink it and instead stepped up onto the throne and reached towards her. He placed his hands on her waist and tried to gently ease her off of the antler. Emma forced herself to relax as he pried her off, it was difficult... but she managed.

Once her feet were on the ground she stared up at him. They stood there staring at each other for what felt like hours, his hands still holding her waist. Emma's mind was relatively blank, the only thing drifting through it being how beautiful he was.

Then she realized where they were and who he was. No. Nononono. NOT HAPPENING. Humor defense, up NOW!

Emma scowled at him and stepped away, "I could have gotten out myself," she sniffed.

The Elvenking raised an eyebrow, his hands falling to his sides.

"Stop staring at me, Mr. Fancyrobes!"

"If you are not going to call me by my title, as you should, at least call me Thranduil and not these bizarre names you keep spewing," he said after a moment.

"What's a Thranduil?" Emma said innocently. Yes, she knew it was his name, but it couldn't hurt to have some fun…

"It is my name. Consider yourself fortunate. None are allowed to call me by it," he said.

Emma stared at him for a moment before…

"Gotta dash! Things to do! Places to go! Peoples to pretend to see!" With that, Emma dashed from the throne room, on shaky legs, cheeks burning.


	17. Chapter 17

Thranduil POV

He slowly approached his throne to which Emma was attached with a death grip. Who would have thought I would be approaching my own throne like it was going to bite me… he thought.

"How… did you get up there?" he said snidely. Emma gave him a funny look, it looked rather like an attempt at a glare.

He tried again, with a more polite approach, "Are you in need of assistance?"

His brow furrowed (A- someone please give me a better phrase…) again when she made no attempt at even answering him and just continued to sniffle. He rolled his eyes.. she better not be acting, he thought sourly. He walked up the dais and crossed his arms.

Deciding he was going to at least try to avoid having to pry her off his throne, he asked, "Well? What are you waiting for? Get down."

Her eyes widened and she shook her head quickly. Oh, great, he thought. He opened his mouth to tell her to stop being so afraid, but then he remembered what she'd been through and if he was being truthful to himself, he really couldn't resist her eyes. Those big green… he snapped out of his thoughts when he heard another sniffle from Emma.

He stepped onto his throne and reached towards her waist, gently tugging her off of the antler. She was unsurprisingly light, especially judging from how small her waist was. He lowered her until she was directly opposite him and he once again found himself getting lost in her green eyes. His gaze almost started to wander downwards, when Emma scowled at him and stepped away.

"I could've gotten myself off," she said primly. Thranduil let his hands fall to his sides and raised an eyebrow at her. Sometimes he really couldn't believe the nerve of this woman…

"Stop staring at me, Mr. Fancyrobes!" she snapped.

Without thinking, he said, "I you are not going to call me by my title, as you should, at least call me Thranduil and not these bizarre names you keep spewing."

"What's a Thranduil?" Emma asked, impertinently.

"It is my name. Consider yourself fortunate. None are allowed to call me by it." He, for some reason, started to feel a little fidgety when Emma started to stare at him, but that ended when she said-

"Gotta dash! Things to do! Places to go! People to pretend to see!" and she scurried from the throne room.

Thranduil couldn't believe himself. He just gave her permission to call him by his name. Something no one has used since the death of his… wife. Feeling the depression start to creep up again, he shook his head and pushed the thoughts of his dead queen from his mind and strode from the throne-room.

His son was arriving today. He had to be ready.

Emma's POV- three hours later

Emma was sitting on her bed, now mostly recovered from the incident, when Miri rushed in.

"Emma! Emma! Legolas has returned! Come! Come on!"

"Woah, woah, woah! Miri! Where are we going?" Emma laughed as Miri dragged her from her room.

"The throne-room! Legolas is back!" Miri shouted.

Emma felt a blush start to creep up her neck at the memory of what had occurred mere hours ago. Before she could think of objecting, they were at their destination.

Thranduil, dressed in magnificent robes as usual, was sitting in his throne (that Emma was now afraid of), he had gotten his crown back. Miri dragged Emma up and to the left of the throne, where they merged into the crowd.

Minutes later, a group of elves came up the pathway. They walked till they were in front of the throne. Thranduil got up and walked down the dais and the guards parted, to reveal the prince and a significantly shorter figure. Thranduil froze.

The short figure, was heavyset and bearded, carrying an ax. Emma realized that it was a dwarf.

"What… is this?" Thranduil said in a threatening voice.

"This is Gimli, son of Gloin, one of the Fellowship of the Ring, and my dear friend," Legolas said. Gimli cleared his throat and bowed.

Thranduil's left eye twitched slightly.

Legolas and the rest of the elves looked apprehensive.

Emma burst out laughing.

All eyes turned to her, but it had not effect. Soon she was on the floor, laughing so hard that the tears fell.

"Emma," Miri hissed, "Be quiet!"

Her laughs subsided into giggles and she waved at Gimli from the ground, with a cheery, "Hi!" She wasn't sure, but she thought that he may have smiled at her. Hard to tell with the beard and all…

Everyone's attention slowly turned back to the prince and his new friend.

"Why have you brought a dwarf into my realm?" Thranduil hissed. Gimli did not look affronted (though it was hard to tell… with the beard and all). He was probably expecting this… Emma thought and giggled again.

"I wished to show him the magnificence of the Greenwood, Ada. I feel that it is time to get over this petty feud," Legolas said calmly.

"I will speak with you later. Give your dwarf friend a room," Thranduil spat, before stalking up the dais and sitting into his throne.

He stared at the dwarf and his eye twitched again.

And again, Emma burst out laughing.


	18. Chapter 18

Thranduil paced back and forth.

A dwarf.

His son had brought a dwarf home. No. He would not stand for it! He would not stand for having a smelly, bearded, vermin dwarf in his palace. He just wouldn't.

He poked his head out of the door and told the guard to bring his son to him. After the guard had left, Thranduil resumed his pacing.

Back and forth, back and forth, back and fo-

"Ada?"

Thranduil's head snapped up and he directed an icy glare at his son. Legolas didn't flinch.

"If this is about the dwarf, Ada, then no, I am not sending him away. He is my dear have been through much together," Legolas said primly.

Thranduil narrowed his eyes, "I don't appreciate you bringing in dwarven filth without my consent, or even knowledge!"

Legolas blinked demurely.

Thranduil pointed his finger threateningly, "If he causes any trouble, any trouble at all, he will be thrown into the dungeons."

Legolas gave a sharp nod and turned on his heel, sweeping out of the door.

"He's even worse than he was when he was a teenager," Thranduil muttered sullenly.

oOo

Emma and Carl crept up behind Zippy, who was engaged in earnest conversation with a rather beautifulelleth.

"I'll take the left, you take the right, we drag him over to a tree and tie him to a branch," Emma muttered.

"Isn't that a little harsh? Couldn't we just tie him to the trunk?" Carl asked, feeling slightly sympathetic for poor Zippy.

"No. Branch," Emma finalized.

Carl shrugged and they crept out from behind the bush. Soon, they were directly behind Zippy and the elleth.

They pounced.

Muffling Zippy's alarmed shriek with their hands, the dragged him behind the bush and grabbed the rope. Dragging him (it was rather difficult, with all the kicking and flailing) over to the nearest tree, which Carl scaled quickly, they managed to tie him to one of the higher branches. As a finishing touch, Carl tickled him for a good ten minutes with both Emma and the elleth shrieking with laughter below.

oOo

Their next victim was Legolas.

They placed a trip wire in the door of his bathroom while he was taking a bath. Hiding outside of the door, they eagerly pressed their ears against it. Finally, the soft humming stopped, signaling that Legolas was finished. They heard water sloshing around and then the soft creak of the door opening.

Of course, that was followed by a startled screech and a wet splat.

"Welcome home, Legolas!" they yelled in unison.

It was silent for a moment and they burst out laughing, starting to run when they heard an angry bellow come from Legolas.

"SPLIT UP!" Emma manage to screech through her hysterical laughing. Carl was really no better off. They took two different hallways, Carl's leading to the barracks and Emma's to the garden.

She came to a stop near a bed of flowers that closely resembled orchids. Emma gazed at them fondly. She had always loved flowers, ever since she was a little girl. She could remember crying when she saw them dying in the fall. Emma gently ran her finger along the nearest one and to her surprise, it started to wrap itself around her arm. Her panic abated when she remember what King Sassyface had told her, that some elves could do continued to stare at the flowers and kept petting the one that had crawled up her arm.

There had been no flowers in Dol Guldur. No plants. The only living things were the… orcs. Technically, the Nazgul wasn't alive. And now that her thoughts had drifted to Dol Guldur, they couldn't help drifting to the amount of pain she had endured there. Suddenly, the flower wrapped around her arm felt much too constricting. As if sensing her unease, the flower unwound itself and went to it's original position.

"Why are you crying?"

Emma almost jumped a foot into the air.

"WILL you STOP sneaking UP ON ME!" Emma screeched.

"I was here the entire time," Thranduil deadpanned.

Emma paled. "Oh…"

"Yes. Oh," Thranduil muttered.

Emma noticed that he looked irritated and even a little fidgety.

"Is.. something wrong?"

His eyes snapped to her and he looked confused, "What?"

"I sa-" Emma began.

Thranduil waved his hand impatiently, "Yes, yes. I mean, why are you asking?"

Emma shrugged and sniffed a little, "Maybe I'm just trying to distract myself…"

Thranduil's eyes softened and he was silent for a moment. Emma grew uncomfortable and started to get up. Her face almost smacked into the hand he had offered for assistance.

"What are you- oh…"

"Yes. Oh." Thranduil's voice held more than a little sarcasm this time. Emma glared at him, but let him help her up all the same. When he didn't immediately let go of her hand, she raised an eyebrow at him. Thranduil looked at their hands for a moment before startling slightly and letting go as if he was burned. Emma didn't notice the blush spreading over her cheeks as she backed up a little.

"I am going to repeat my earlier question, why were you crying?" Thranduil asked.

Emma shook her head, "No particular reason."

Thranduil decided to drop it and looked at the flowers, "My head gardener has a skill similar to yours, maybe he can help you?"

Emma looked up at him and smiled weakly, "Yes… I will ask him…"

Thranduil did not return the smile and Emma felt her stomach drop slightly.

Emma turned to leave. "Thank you."

Thranduil just stared at her.

"Thrandy."

His eyes widened in outrage, but she was already gone. After a moment, an amused smile spread over his face.


	19. Chapter 19

Emma gulped and shifted nervously in her seat, the tight fitting dress making it hard to breath. The music and laugher pressed in on her ears, making it hard to focus on whatever Miri was chattering on about.

Miri had been the one to tell her about the party. Earlier that morning, Miri had just plowed right into Emma's room (no surprises there, since the had become friends, any expectation of privacy from either of them was futile)

*flashback*

"Emma! Emma! EMMA!"

"Mmmmph!"

Emma buried her face into the pillow. She heard the opening of her dresser doors and groaned, knowing that it signified they were going somewhere.

"Emma, get your lazy butt out of bed, we have shopping to do!" Miri trilled as she threw various garments onto the bed, totally disregarding the fact that Emma was still half asleep in said bed.

"Whyyyy are we going shoppiiiiing?" Emma whined half into half out of the pillow.

"Stop mumbling," Miri said sternly (of course, this didn't last and she reverted to gushing again) "We are going because the king is throwing a party tonight! In honor of the prince returning, and we are all invited!"

Emma perked up at the word party. And then she perked right back down. The last party she had been at had resulted in her year and some imprisonment at Dol Guldur.

"I… I don't think I am going to go, Miri…"

"Nonsen- Oh… Emma… I think you should go. It will be good for you, and it is inside the palace…" Miri said quietly, coming to sit next to Emma on the bed.

Emma pursed her lips. It probably would be good for her, and she hasn't really been around that much, except for where Miri drags her (no surprise there), not to mention being social. That would be the last word on the list to describe her.

Miri was staring at her expectantly and Emma looked slowly from her to the dresses on the bed.

After a minute, a grin spread on her face, and Miri bounced up and down, letting out an excited squeal.

*end of le flashback*

Emma remembered how excited they had both been, going to choose dresses, do each others hair and makeup.

Staring unseeingly at the elves whirling across the floor, Emma blindly reached for her wine glass. Though she was sure she'd had plenty, she took a rather large gulp.

So far, four different ellyn had asked her to dance, and she had turned down all of them but one, the first one. He had been rather handsome (who was she kidding, what elf wasn't?), with his finely chiseled features and long brown hair that was several shades darker than her own. Unfortunately, the traitorous recesses of her mind couldn't help but compare this new acquaintance (he said his name was Nylan) to the Elvenking and naturally, Nylan paled in comparison. After that had been dinner, which taken a slightly (very) embarrassing turn, hence her refusal of any further dances.

*flashback*

"That was fun," Emma said, breathlessly. Not due to the very, very good looks of the ellon beside her, no… of course not. It was all that whirling and twirling they had done at ridiculous speeds around the dance floor. Really… the elves have the most rigorous dances Emma had ever come across. She vaguely wondered whether such a thing as a slow dance existed here.

Nylan flashed her a charming grin and bowed, "Indeed it was, my lady."

Emma giggled (she may have blushed. Just a little). Looking around, she spotted where she was supposed to sit. Miri had told her that they were to be seated at the High Table (where the Elvenking sat with all of the nobility) and that she had better be on her best behavior.

After separating with (the very handsome) Nylan, she mad her way over to the table where, to her slight astonishment (not), King Sassypants was having a one-sided glarefest with Gimli, who was silently eating his food. Picking the seat to the left of the dwarf, Emma tentatively sat down, with a wary glance at the stewing sparkly-robed Elvenking. She looked to Thranduil's right and saw Legolas there, mock-glaring at her. She vaguely wondered why, when she remembered her and Carl's little trick.

With a second of thought, she smiled sweetly at the woodland prince, "Did you like your welcome home gift, my lord?"

Legolas' mock-scowl grew deeper, "It was very… welcoming…"

"And what gift would that be?"

Uh-oh. Emma hadn't noticed Thranduil's glare shift to her until it was too late. She glanced to Legolas, and right then knew, that this was going to be his revenge.

Legolas flashed a simpering smile and said, "Oh… nothing much really. Just a lovely trip wire outside of my bathroom door. I found it as I was coming out from my first bath at home."

Thranduil raised his eyebrows and slowly turned towards Emma, who in turn was blushing furiously. Gimli suddenly began chuckling and then, after the Elvenking had started glaring at him again, full blown laughter.

Emma managed a weak smile, before finishing off her food and excusing herself as quickly as possible.

*end of le second flashback*

And that is how she found herself guzzling down wine. Suddenly, getting sick of the party, she stood up and walked out of the ballroom (her attempt at a straight line, needed some work).

Somehow, she found herself in the garden again (why is it always the garden? Probably her connection with plants… Duh…) and plopped herself down on a bench to pout.

She didn't hear the clunk of boots until they stopped right next to her. She looked up and was face-to-face (well… almost) with none other than, Gimli. He gave her a smile and gestured to the seat beside her, "D'ya mind, lassie?"

Emma shook her head and smiled weakly, saying, "I'm afraid I won't be much company though… I think I have gotten myself a little… tipsy."

Gimli chuckled at this, "I don't blame ya, lassie. That was quite a little predicament you were in back there." Here he chuckled again. His chuckles were quite contagious and soon, Emma was giggling with him.

"I think it was worth it though," she managed through her giggles, "You should have heard the splat Legolas made… he has surprisingly good lungs as well."

Here, they both started laughing hysterically (well… Emma was, Gimli was just laughing… he didn't do hysterically).

"Ha. I knew you two would get along!"

Emma and Gimli looked up to find Legolas standing there, looking rather smug and triumphant.

"Shut it, Legless," Emma snorted. Gimli collapsed in another fit of chuckles. Legolas rolled his eyes, but soon, his face grew serious.

"Emma… if you wouldn't mind, I would like to talk to you… in private?"

"If it's serious, you may want to wait till tomorrow, laddy, Lassie here is quite drunk," Gimli chortled.

"What, you're gonna name me after a dog now? Greaaaat…" Emma slurred. Legolas and Gimli stared at each other in confusion, before their attention went back to Emma when she suddenly keeled over and landed sideways, out cold.

Gimli burst into fresh rounds of chuckles, whilst Legolas rolled his eyes, contemplating whether he should bring her back to her room... or leave her there.


	20. Chapter 20

Thranduil stared up at the stars with an annoyed expression. Still coming to terms with the fact that his son had dragged in a… dwarf. A dwarf that was quite possibly tracking filth all throughout his lovely palace. The thought made Thranduil's scowl deepen as he made a mental note to ask the servants to clean anything the dwarf had touched twice. Returning his gaze to straight ahead of him, he wandered deeper into the gardens, and his thoughts strayed to Emma.

Thranduil couldn't help but be amused by the trick Emma had played on his son. Especially now that he'd had a few glasses of wine. He offhandedly thought that he may be drunk (no the first time it would've happened) and if he was he should probably attempt to return to his chambers. His eyes wandered back up to the stars and he dismissed the thought.

He had just begun to ponder the feeling he'd had when he saw Emma dancing with that strange ellon when a sound interrupted his train of thought. A cross between a grunt and squeak. If such a thing was possible. Thranduil carelessly strolled down the pathway towards the noise and to his dismay, found Emma face-down on the ground in front of a bench she must have either been lying on, or just barely missed.

Sniggering a little, Thranduil took off his outer robe and put it on the bench before stepping carefully across Emma and sitting crosslegged on his robe. The Valar only know if that nasty dwarf had been sitting there. He sat there staring at the back of Emma's head for a few minutes wondering why she was out there, when the thought crossed his mind that she may have been drunk as well (drunk Thranduil isn't quite as perceptive as sober Thranduil).

After a few more minutes, he grew bored and decided to see what it would take to wake her up. Carefully leaning over, he reached out and poked her in the back of the head. Getting no response, he repeated the action and was rewarded with a.. growl.

Leaning back and feeling just a little alarmed, Thranduil contemplated his next course of action. He was spared the trouble when Emma growled again and rolled onto her back. They sat (or lay, in Emma's case) staring for a good minute and a half before Emma said in a slurred voice, "What's the great and mighty Thrandy doing here?"

Thranduil shrugged and she rolled her eyes. He stoically watched her pull herself up (with no small amount of effort), offering no assistance.

"You're drunk," he said, after she pulled herself up next to him.

"So are you," she said snidely. They looked at each other for a few minutes before they sniggered quietly. After a few minutes they were as serious as two drunk elves can get, gazing up at the stars.

"They are beautiful, are they not?" Thranduil murmured softly. When Emma didn't answer, he turned to see her nodding off, her hair blowing gently in the warm breeze. He smiled softly and returned his gaze to the stars, beginning to feel a little drowsy himself. A few more minutes passed and he felt a light weight drop onto his upper arm. Stiffening, he looked down to see Emma's head resting there. He considered moving her off, but he was to lazy (at least that was his excuse) to actually follow up on that, so he merely returned his gaze to the stars.

oOo

Legolas woke up nice and early, just so he could see the look on Emma's face when she found out he'd left her in the garden. As he bounced towards the gardens, he happened upon a cluster of servants whispering. Ever the mischievous elfling, he silently backtracked and did a little side mission.

Side Mission; Eavesdropping. Points equal- 9

He did an internal whoop. That would bring his total since he had an active imagination to…

8,338,739,278.

Shaking his head to rid himself of some of the giddiness, Legolas focused on the (side) mission at hand.

Conversation overheard by Legolas

Servant Girl #1: ...that he was even considering it!

Servant Girl #2: I think they would look cute together!

Servant Girl #1: Amariel! Don't speak of what you know nothing of!

Servant Girl #2: *sigh* Whatever. What did you see again?

Gardener: They were just sitting on the bench in the gardens, fast asleep. It was rather endearing.

Servant Girl #1: I still don't think all was as it seemed.

Servant Girl #2: You listen to me Cora-

Servant Girl #1: Don't call me that!

Servant Girl #2: Cora. We will have a new queen with in the next century and I'm sure of it.

End Conversation

Legolas staggered back.

A new queen?

That would mean a new mother!

That couldn't possibly be right!

Without giving it a second thought, Legolas sped to the gardens in search of answers.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Of course, he did not expect to see this.

Legolas couldn't help himself.

He burst out laughing.

Those idiotic servant girls. And the gardener. He wasn't very smart either. There is no way his father could or let alone ever would court Emma.

True, the position they were both in was slightly compromising, but he knew for a fact that they were both drunk. And when his father gets drunk he usually wanders into the gardens and gets himself hypnotized by the stars. They must have been near incoherent to get this close together.

His attention was drawn to the snuggling pair as they began to wake up. Stepping back behind a bush, he gleefully watched the exchange.

oOo

Emma burrowed into the nice warm lump that was beside her. She heard something that sounded like a laugh and began to wake up a bit more. After a few seconds, she realized the warm lump was a person. And that person had an arm around her waist.

She was pretty sure the last time she checked, she was unconscious on a bench in the gardens. The person holding on to her was clearly waking up as well. She cautiously peeked up and yelped.

After that, many things happened.

The person holding on to her finished waking up in record time and let go immediately with an exclamation of shock. Emma fell off the bench and scrambled backwards, and a bush burst into hysterical laughter.

Emma and Thranduil both slowly turned to the bush, confusion etched onto their faces. They assumed they were imagining things and slowly turned back to each other. Never meeting each other's gaze fully. Emma was beet red and the Elvenking was even a little pink.

Neither of them said anything and the Elvenking slowly stood up, bowed to Emma and picked his robe up off the bench with two fingers and a look of distaste, before striding off towards the palace.

"He's usually like that in the morning."

Emma yelped and whirled around to face the bush she had thought was laughing.

So apparently it really was.

"I didn't know elves had talking bushes," Emma said curiously (she was still half asleep. Forgive her for her idiocy).

"Oh yes." The bush bobbed vigorously.

"Oh no. I'm going crazy." With that, Emma (still beet red) picked herself up off the ground and stalked to the palace, leaving a hysterical bush (or Legolas, cleverly disguised as a bush) behind.


	21. Chapter 21

Emma sat in her bedroom and pondered the strange strange rumors that had started at a mere-

"Did you hear? The king is said to be courting!"

To a rather terrifying-

"A friend of a friend said that the king is to be married!"

Dropping her head in her hands, Emma groaned. The rumors had gotten absolutely out of control. And to make it worse, a lot of people were assuming it was her. She couldn't go anywhere without receiving strange stares.

"Emma, you need to come out!" Miri whined from the other side of Emma's door.

"I can't! They won't stop staring!" Emma flopped dramatically back on her bed. Miri growled and opened the door. Ignoring Emma's feeble protests, Miri plopped on the bed next to her.

"What do you feel like doing… besides wallowing in your misery?"

Thinking for a moment, Emma sighed, "Pranking Legolas."

A moment of silence passed.

"Then we'll prank Legolas."

oOo

Legolas was having a relatively good day. He had been able to sleep in, he and Tauriel had gone for a morning game of tag in the woods (it had taken him a while to persuade Tauriel to do it) and then he had shown Gimli a bit more of the palace.

Strangely enough, he had seen nothing of Emma today. Of course, this occurrence was becoming more and more common.

Five minutes later, as he stood inside his room, soaking wet, he wished he hadn't wondered where she was. Turning around, he observed the bucket on the floor. "Ah. the classic, bucket on the door trick." Opening the door to his room, he stuck his head out, and ignoring the strange looks yelled, "THIS MEANS WAR!"

\\(*o*)/

Emma was heading to the greenhouse, finally, for her first lesson in her odd botanical power. One thought running through her head was, I feel like some awesome version of Poison Ivy!

Her thoughts moved to a few days ago, when Legolas had screamed the declaration of war for all to hear. Giggling and lost in her thoughts, Emma missed the trip wire strategically placed in front of a mud puddle.

Emma clambered to her feet and lunged at the chuckling bush. Unfortunately, she was too slow, and Legolas got away. Grumbling, Emma trudged towards the greenhouse, attempting to ignore the stares she was getting.

The first thing she said as she opened the doors was, "Ignore the mud. Please."

"Uh… Of course…"

"Nylan!?" Emma gasped. She couldn't believe it. Ohhh.. this is going to be so awkward… she thought miserably.

"Emma? So you're the one I'm going to be training? Well.. now I know I won't be bored to death," Nylan flashed a charming grin. Emma blushed furiously.

Nylan gestured to her clothes, "May I ask.. ehm… what happened?"

"Prank war."

"I'm going to pretend I understood that," he said breezily while turning and starting to walk towards a flower-bed. Emma giggled as she followed him.

"We should get started. You probably want to leave sooner than later." Nylan cast a meaningful glance at her muddy state.

"What have you managed to do so far?"

"Um… Really all I've done is make the flowers on Mr. Sassyface's crown look presentable."

Nylan looked confused, "Mr. Sassyface?"

Blushing a little, Emma said, "Erm… The Elvenking."

"Ahhh… well, onto business. We'll start with these," Nylan said, gesturing to a small bed of blue flowers. "I want you to focus, on making them open and close."

"Um… Ok." Emma sat in front of the flowers and stared at them, trying very hard to make at least one of them close.

Nylan plopped down beside her. "You're trying too hard. Just, picture it, and let the image flow through you."

The elf is speaking a different language. Speaking of which.. I really need to learn elvish… Oh.. focus… Emma shook her head slightly. Picturing the flowers in her head, she really did try. But nothing happened.

"Try touching the soil."

Soil? Who says soil? Regardless, Emma placed her hand on the dirt and closed her eyes. She almost missed Nylan's soft whisper of, "You're doing it."

Her eyes flew open just in time to see the flower slowly open up again before it stopped. Sighing, Emma lifted her hand off the ground. "If you don't mind… I need to take a bath before dinner…"

Nylan smiled warmly, "Not at all. I will see you tomorrow?"

"Um… Yeah? Ok.."

"Good."

Emma blushed slightly and lifted herself off the ground.

o_O_O_o

It was dark out.

Not too dark.

But dark nonetheless.

Emma and Carl sniggered quietly as she eased the door to Legolas' room open. Peeking around the corner, they saw him fast asleep in his bed. Emma crept over and had to contain a giggle of glee at the sight of him lying on his stomach.

Carefully reaching her hand into the small bowl that Carl held out, Emma began her work.

O_o_o_O

"MAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH!"

The Woodland Prince's shout of shock and fury echoed through the palace and Emma immediately fell out of her chair laughing. She ignored the shocked looks everyone at the breakfast table gave her.

"I'm assuming you had something to do with that," Thranduil sighed.

Emma poked her head over the side of the table and nodded before slumping back to the floor.

"Well. It doesn't seem as if you are going to tell me what you did. I shall return shortly." Thranduil gracefully rose out of his chair and strode in the direction of Legolas' room. He reached the door and said, "Legolas. What is it now?"

"Don't you dare come in here, ada."

Of course, that only piqued Thranduil's interest and he slowly pushed open the door.

It took all of his self control to suppress his grin.

Legolas was sprawled all over the bed, face-down, his his hair spread around his head.

The bad part?

His hair was no longer platinum, but a very vibrant purple.

Legolas looked up, "Adaaaaaa! Look what she did to me!"

Thranduil shook his head and sighed, walking out of the room. He let the smirk cross his face once he had shut the door behind him.

oOoOoOo

"I want to go to Rivendell."

Miri's mouth dropped open and she stared at Emma in shock.

"What?"

"Let's go to Rivendell. We can filch a couple horses. It'll be easy and fun."

Miri couldn't respond to Emma's crazy new idea.

After a few moments of opening and closing her mouth, Miri finally managed an answer, "But… by ourselves? Neither of us know how to fight."

"Aren't all the orcs supposed to be dead?"

"Well.. there are other things, not just orcs."

Emma sighed.

A few minutes pause.

"I still think we should go to Rivendell. I'm going to go ask Mr. McSasserson about it."

Emma walked away humming.

Miri stared blankly after her. "Who?"

oOo

Thranduil lounged in his throne, wine in hand. Today had been a nice day. Legolas hadn't pestered him at all (but that was because his hair was still purple and he hadn't left his room). He vaguely heard footsteps, but thought nothing of it, and decided a doze couldn't hurt.

"I want to go to Rivendell."

He choked on his wine, opened his eyes, and leveled a glare at Emma (who else would it be?).

"No!"

"Why not?" she whined. "Carl, Zippy, and Miri could come. I wouldn't be alone."

"N- Who?"

"Carl and Zippy? My body guards? Miri? My friend? My buddy? My peep? My-"

"Alright, alright-"

"THANK YOOOOUUUU!"

Thrandy was left opened mouthed,

Before he could even object, Emma was gone. He didn't recall agreein- Oh.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. This could not possibly end well.

oOo

Carl and Zippy were playing the elvish version of chess, when Emma burst through the door.

"WE'RE GOING TO RIVENDELL!"

And she was gone.

Zippy looked up, "Wait… what?"

Carl shrugged.

Just another day in the lives of those involved with Emma.

He got out of his chair.

"I suppose we should go inquire as to what this is all about."

oOo

Regardless of the protests of several people, the Elvenking, Miri, and of course, Zippy (Carl had no qualms about this trip whatsoever. Plus. Zippy disagreed. All the more reason to do it), three days later found a giddy Emma, a nervous Miri, an indifferent Carl, and a highly reluctant Zippy, all on horses, on their merry way to Rivendell.


	22. Chapter 22

"We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz!"

"Will you please stop singing that song!"

"Oh.. you're no fun Zippy. I need something to doooo…"

"Whatever you do, no singing."

Carl chuckled. "Do you really want her to go crazy, Zippy?"

Miri shook her head. "Emma. We are almost there. Control yourself."

"But… this is how I keep control!" Emma whined, "How much longer?"

"About an hour," Carl said.

Emma scowled. "Remind me. Don't go on two week trips with a bunch of party poopers."

Zippy groaned. "Tell her to be quiet!"

"I am afraid I have no control over the situation, Zippy," Carl sighed.

Zippy scowled and rode ahead, muttering sullenly. All was silent for a few precious minutes.

"Let it go, let it go! I am one with the wind and skyyyy! Let it go! Let it gooo! They'll never see me cryyyy!"

"WILL YOU BE QUIET!" Zippy hollered.

oOo

Emma's eyes nearly bugged out of her head when Rivendell came into sight. Her mouth formed an 'o. Her mind went into overload.

In other words, it was the most beautiful place she had ever seen.

The trees surrounded a beautiful dell. A River flowed by, and marble buildings lay nestled together. Beautiful statues and gardens were strewn throughout. A large waterfall cascaded down the far side and Emma tried very hard not to squeal.

She snapped out of her daze and noticed the others had progressed up the path. She urged her horse into a brisk trot. They reached the large entrance hall and were greeted by an elf. He was tall and had long brown hair. A very cheerful and slightly mischievous grin was on his face.

"Vedui' il'er!" the elf said in a cheerful voice. "What brings you to Rivendell? And all the way from the Greenwood nonetheless!"

"Indeed!"

Emma's head snapped down to the voice that had come from near her left foot and she almost fell off of her saddle.

The elf, who was an exact mirror image of the elf in front of them, grinned broadly up at her, offering his hand, "Elrohir at you service."

"I'm Elladen!" the elf in front of them said petulantly, "In case you wanted to know," he muttered.

Emma giggled and allowed Elrohir to help her down from her saddle. Zippy and Carl hopped off and Zippy walked over to Miri and helped her off of her horse.

"First things first. Are there any tips on telling you two apart?" Emma said.

"I am afraid not," Elrohir said morosely. "Even Ada gets us mixed up."

Elladen grinned, "It's quite fun to mix him up though."

Elrohir nodded vigorously. "Do you wish to see the Lord Elrond? He said that he was available, if you so wished."

Emma's eyes widened, "How… how…"

Carl smiled sympathetically, "Yes, she would."

Miri slid next to Emma, whose mind was still being blown. "Lord Elrond has the gift of foresight."

Emma stared blankly for several minutes before exclaiming rather loudly, "OHHHHH! I get it now!"

"We're going to go over here," Carl called over.

Miri shook her head and giggled at Emma before jogging to catch up to the two 'bodyguards'. Emma jogged a little and placed herself in between the twins, "Ok. Whose who?"

"I'm Elrohir," said the one on her left.

"And I'm Elladen," said the one on her right.

She narrowed her eyes at them. "Liars."

Both of their eyes widened. "Nobody's ever gotten past that one !"

Emma smirked. "I'm not nobody."

The brothers each swung an arm around the shoulders of their newfound friend and they chatted animatedly as they meandered towards Lord Elrond's study. Once they reached the large wooden door Elladen pushed it opened and gestured for Emma to go inside.

The first thing she saw when she stepped into the room, were the giant bookshelves. And then she saw the large desk, with a stern looking elf with (surprise surprise) dark brown hair behind it. Which lead to her first thought on the Lord Elrond being, Oooo… he's a grumpy elf.

Lord Elrond looked up and smiled at her. He waved his hand, dismissing his two sons.

"Mae govannon, Emma."

Emma's eyes bulged again, before she remembered what Miri had said. She smiled weakly at him.

"Um… hi?"

Lord Elrond rose one of his rather intimidating eyebrows. "You do not yet know the elven language?"

"Uh… Nope."

Lord Elrond shook his head and muttered something indecipherable before saying, "We shall fix that during your stay. Or at least start to."

Emma grinned.

Elrond's face took on a more serious expression. "You have been through much, little one."

Emma's smile was wiped right off at that comment. She ducked her head and stared at her lap, wishing he hadn't brought that up. "How do you know about that?" she muttered.

Oh… right… foresight.

"You shall heal."

"Says who."

Elrond smiled. "I do."

Emma glared at him. "Do you have any idea what I go through? I have the worst nightmares. Every. Single. Night."

"I do understand."

Emma didn't stop there. "And I can't stand the dark. I used to be fine with that! But now, even if I go into a dim corridor, I start having a panic attack. I wish I could climb trees to get away, but I can't, because NOW I'M AFRAID OF THOSE TOO!"

She could feel her eyes welling up. "Why am I even having a breakdown right now? It's stupid."

"You apparently have not talked about this at all," Elrond said.

Emma crossed her arms. "I don't believe in therapists," she grumbled, a tear slowly sliding down her cheek.

Elrond chuckled.

"Your supposed to be some big healer guy right? Is there anything to make them go away? The dreams, I mean," Emma said hopefully, wiping the renegade tear away.

Elrond shook his head. "No, my dear. Your mind must heal first, and to do that, it takes time. To start, I suggest you talk to somebody when you are having an exceptionally hard day."

Emma pouted. "I don't have many people to talk to… Well… I guess I could bother Carl and Zippy, not that Zippy would listen, but Carl would… and Miri will be around sometimes. I guess Legolas would be a good fill-in for an emergency."

Lord Elrond chuckled again.

Emma sighed and looked up. "Do you mind if I go now? I did not have chatting about my life problems in mind when I came here. I feel depressed now."

"Of course. Enjoy your stay here. Please try not to get my sons into more trouble than usual," Lord Elrond said, his eyes twinkling.

Emma grinned and said, "No promises." Before walking out the door. Elrond heard the faint sound of talking and then suddenly conspiratorial giggling.

He groaned and dropped his head into his hands.

This was going to be a slow week.


	23. Chapter 23

"Farewell."

"Namaarie."

"Very good, Emma. Now, tell me, what would do you say when you are introduced to royalty?"

"Elen sila lumenn omentilmo," Emma sighed.

"Very good," Erestor said. He seemed to debate with himself before saying, "I think that will be all for today."

Emma's face lit up. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She jumped out of her chair and ran from the room. Erestor rubbed his face. "Yallume… "

He could not understand why Elrond had made him train the odd elleth from Mirkwood. He was the chief counselor, not a teacher for immature and illiterate elves! He sighed and got up. If Elrond didn't pay him overtime for this atrocity, he would not be pleased. Teaching Emma was almost worse than having to listen to Glorfindel prattle! Which is really quite an accomplishment, because once old Glorfee got started, there was no shutting him up.

Erestor got up from the chair and edged to the door, peeking out into the corridor to make sure nobody was coming. The last thing he wanted was to be ambushed. Again.

oOo

Emma had been in Rivendell for four days. She had done almost everything. Learn elvish (almost… still working on that), prank people, go exploring, prank people, serenade Zippy at two in the morning, prank people. All in all, she had had some of the best times of her life in the past few days.

Tripping around a corner, Emma narrowly missed slamming into the wall (what is it with her and walls?). Resuming her dash down the corridor, Emma came to a screeching halt at the door to the dining halls. Dusting her dress off, Emma plastered a look of nonchalance on her face before waltzing in like she wasn't starving to death.

Walking calmly over to where her friends were seated, Emma felt herself start to drool a little. Quickly gathering herself, and trying no to look at the delicious food, Emma sat down in between Elladan and Carl.

Leaning forward, Emma looked at Zippy and grinned wolfishly. Zippy glared at her sullenly, before turning back to his food.

"Aw, didn't you like my song?"

Zippy's jaw clenched and Emma thought she saw his knuckles go a little white around the fork he was holding. Carl choked a little on the food he was attempting to chew.

Emma continued, "Personally, I thought Elrohir's harp thingy was a nice touch."

Elrohir, who was sitting on the other side of Elladan, spit his drink back in his cup before saying indignantly, "It's called a lyre! Not a harp thingy."

Emma shrugged, before starting to pile food on her plate.

"What was that song called again?" Elladan asked.

"Oh, you mean; We, are never ever ever, getting back together!" Emma sang jubilantly, casting a sly glance over at Zippy, who all but had his face buried in his plate of food.

Elladan nodded.

"Quite simple. It is called, 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together'. Taylor Swift."

"Say what?" Elrohir said, looking perplexed.

"Taylor Swift. She wrote and sang that song," Emma explained.

"Anybody could sing it better than you," Zippy muttered.

Emma gasped in mock horror, and the contents of her fork flew into Elladan's face.

Emma looked over at Carl. Before she could blink, she received a face full of salad. "You're kidding, right?" Miri asked nervously from across the table. Emma and Elladan were locked in a vicious staring contest.

A few seconds passed before Emma hollered, "FOOD FIGHT!" And flung a slice of apple at Elladan. Carl and Elrohir joined in readily, and eventually, the majority of the elves in the dining hall were either hurling food at each other or hiding under the tables (Elrond was one of those).

oOo

"Excuse me!"

Emma turned around and saw a tall, blonde elf walking quickly towards her.

"Who are you?" she asked, stifling a yawn.

"I believe I am the one you hit in the face with the salad dressing," he said drily, but Emma saw the twinkle of amusement in his bright blue eyes."

"Oh… that also make you the one who used somebody's bow to shoot a loaf of bread at me," Emma deadpanned.

"It certainly does," the elf said rather proudly.

"May I ask your name?" Emma prodded.

"If you give me yours."

"Not fair! You probably already know mine!" Emma protested.

The ellon chuckled. "True. I am Glorfindel, Lord of the House-"

"You're.. you're that guy who killed the Balrog!"

"Indeed," Glorfindel said, extremely amused.

"OH MY GOSH THAT'S SO COOL!" Emma squealed.

Wincing slightly at her volume, Glorfindel said, "I am unaware as to who this Gosh is, and why you think the fact I killed a Balrog is cold."

Emma's face straightened as if by magic.

"Ignore me. Now, what did you want?"

"Merely to make your acquaintance. You seem like an interesting elleth," Glorfindel flashed a charming smile.

Emma stared at him blankly for several seconds before shrugging. "Ok. You made my acquaintance. Not to seem rude, but I need to go to sleep. This is the price I must pay for serenading Zippy…"

"Of course, sleep away. I have some business of my own to attend to." Glorfindel leaned in conspiratorially, "It involves muffins."

Emma snorted.

oOo

A few hours after breakfast saw Emma, Elladan, and Elrohir, racing through the hallways, pursued by an infuriated Carl, whose hair somewhat resembled a bird's nest that was half mauled by a raccoon.

"I knew that was a bad idea!" Elrohir yelled as they whirled around a corner.

"It was worth it though!" Emma shrieked.

Carl was in hot pursuit, screaming, "TRAITORS!" at the top of his lungs. He hurled the hairbrush he was holding and it hit Elrohir, who fell dramatically to the floor and cried, "Save yourselves!" to his retreating friend and brother.

"Next time we put honey in somebody's hairbrush, we DON'T hide on the other side of the door!" Emma panted, as they ran into the gardens.

"It usually works!" Elladan retorted.

"Quick! In these bushes!" Emma hissed, promptly diving into a nearby bush.

"EMMA WAIT!" Elladan yelled, just a few seconds to late.

Emma's pained screech echoed through the garden.

Elladen covered his eyes. "Those are rose bushes…"


	24. Chapter 24

Legolas inhaled his potatoes.

"You what?" he choked out.

Emma sniggered. "I started a food fight."

Legolas' face fell. "I always miss the fun stuff!" he whined.

Emma reigned in her laughing. "You can say that again…" she said gleefully.

"It sounds as if you are quite the troublemaker, Lassie," Gimli piped up from the other side of Legolas.

"What was Elrond's reaction to this… food fight? Did he not put a stop to it?" Thranduil asked, swishing the wine around in his goblet.

Emma snorted. "His reaction was to hide under the table," she said smugly.

Thranduil tried very hard not to laugh. However, a small chuckle managed to escape. The image of Elrond hiding under the table was just too much for him. Emma stared at him for a second, eventually deciding not to pick on him about it…

Yet.

"What other chaos did you cause in Imladris?" Legolas asked, having sufficiently controlled his snickers.

"Oh.. nothing much, sang to Zippy… put honey in Carl's hair. They did do what you failed to." Here Emma glared at Thranduil.

Thranduil raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

"I can speak elvish," Emma said, sticking her nose in the air.

Thranduil smirked. "Quena mani? Lle lakwenian? " Emma stared at him blankly.

"Thought so…" The smirk didn't once leave his face. "Well, I have matters that I must attend to. Legolas, I expect to see you in the throne room for the report."

"Tanya nae sai n'eina."

Thranduil's eyebrow shot up and he slowly turned to face Emma. "Lle rangwa amin?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "Lle quena i'lambe tel' Eldalie?"

Legolas snorted and Thranduil returned Emma's eye roll with one of his own, refusing to admit her victory as he walked away.

oOo

"Leggaaaaaay!"

Legolas turned around to see Emma running straight at him. She did not appear to be slowing down, so he jumped to the side, and then, knowing Emma, he lunged after her and grabbed her arms before she ran into the wall.

"Leggy! C'mere!" Emma, not missing a beat, started dragging him towards the garden.

"Whoa! Emma, where are you taking me? And will you stop calling me Leggy?"

"The garden, dummy! And no!"

"Dummy?"

"Nevermind." Emma shoved him onto the ground. "Sit here." In from of him, was a patch of wilting flowers.

"Emma-"

"Watch!" she said giddily. She placed her hands over over the flowers and closed her eyes. "Ama poldora" A soft green light glowed and the flowers slowly gained their life. The once sad, dying flowers, became once more whole. Their beautiful blue petals had even gained a soft glow.

"Apparently there is also a spell to keep them like this, but Nylan says I am not ready yet," Emma said, smiling happily at the flowers. Legolas mirrored her smile, glad to see her so happy.

"What are you two up to now?" a suspicious voice called from behind Emma.

Emma turned around and Legolas looked up, both watching Thranduil as he approached and eyed the flowers. "Did you do this?" he asked Emma, still observing them.

Emma nodded, a faint blush painting her cheeks.

"Very good," Thranduil mused, finally looking at her. Legolas watched as they stared at each other for a few seconds, before they both looked away. He shook his head to himself.

"What do you want Sparkly-Robed-One?" Emma muttered. Thranduil raised an eyebrow.

"I was merely taking a walk in the garden."

"Hm…" Emma looked at Thranduil suspiciously, the Elvenking merely returned her look.

Legolas rolled his eyes. He was not going to stick around with these strange ones. He leapt gracefully to his feet and sauntered off in another direction, ignoring the slightly bewildered looks of the two elves he left behind.

oOo

Emma tried not to laugh. She tried so hard.

But eventually she had to throw herself into a closet and laughed hysterically into her robe. Once she had wiped the tears of mirth away, and quietly crawled out, Emma continued on her way down the hall, towards Sassy Pants' quarters.

She ran into a wall or two, due to it being the dead of night, but, you know… Things happen.

Finally, finally, she got to his room. She couldn't recall if his door squeaked or not, but decided that it probably didn't. The servants were pretty on top of things here. She ever so slowly turned the nob and pushed the door open enough for her to poke her head around the corner.

She could not believe she was actually doing this.

She had to jerk her head out and run back to the closet. She hoped she didn't wake anybody up… she muffled it as best she could. Finally she dragged herself together and slunk out of the closet, back towards Thrandy's room.

Biting her lip, Emma pushed his door open wider and slipped in. A beam of moonlight slapped her in the face and she winced a little. No fair! He had a window.. spoiled little… She looked around for him, and of course, the bed was not that hard to miss, and she crept over to the side, peering down at the sleeping diva. Emma slapped her hand over her mouth. Don't start laughing. Don't start laughing.

The first thing that struck her was how peaceful he looked. The next was that his hair was all messed up. Emma slapped her hand over he mouth again. Don't blow this now. She stopped staring at him, mostly because she had something she needed to do, but also because it was a little creepy to stare at someone while the slept.

Looking around, her gaze rested on the object of her mission.

The crown.

Laughing maniacally to herself, Emma crept over to the crown, which was on the other side of the large bed. Just as she had gone around the end, Thranduil turned around and muttered something unintelligible. Emma froze. He didn't make anymore movement, so once again, Emma resumed her creeping. She reached for the crown and held it carefully in her hands.

An evil grin graced her features.

The pink flowers had mysteriously turned to green leaves, but that was besides the point. The point was that the crown was alive and it was a plant. Emma closed her eyes, and pictured how she wanted it to look, quietly whispering, "Kanta."

She could feel the wood moving beneath her fingers and opened her eyes. Her grin turned positively gloating. Oh, he was going to be so angry. His wonderful spiky crown was now in the shape of a party hat. Mwaha...

Just as she reached over to place the crown back, Thranduil turned and mumbled again, successfully scaring the heck out of Emma. She dropped the crown and it fell to the floor with a clatter. This scared her even more, and she too dropped to the floor with a thud. She heard a small gasp and the sheets rustled.

Son of a biscuit eater. He's awake.

She thought fast and rolled under the bed. She heard more movement and then a whispered, "What in the Valar…" Some platinum hair and a hand came into sight as Thranduil leaned over and picked up his crown.

Emma held her breath.

She heard a very long, drawn out sigh.

Drama queen.

"I know you're there."

Emma's mouth fell open. Maybe he was just testing.. maybe he wasn't sure.

"Get out from under the bed Emma. I can hear you breathing. Now that I think of it, it really isn't that hard imagining you as a human."

Emma bristled at that statement.

She crawled out from under the bed, and stood up, glaring at him. He was still partly under the covers, his arm was thrown over his face…

And dear Valar he was shirtless.

"Son of a biscuit eater," she said, rather matter-of-factly.

Thranduil removed his arm and stared at her, both eyebrows raised. "I don't think I should ask…" he said cautiously.

Emma waved off his comment and averted her gaze from his torso.

"I am going to take a leap and guess you did this." Thranduil held the crown- dangling from one finger- over his head, replacing the other over his face.

"Do you like it?" Emma said cheekily.

Thranduil removed his arm again and glared at her. "I like it so much that I am considering giving you a permanent room in the dungeons."

Emma could tell he was joking, but nevertheless, 'dungeon' had become one of her least favorite words and she fidgeted a little.

There was several moments of awkward silence.

"Weeeell… I should be going.. you know… duty calls," Emma squeaked.

Thranduil had long since replaced his arm over his face. He snorted, "What duty? Besides, it's the middle of the night."

"Hey.. I resent that!" Emma huffed.

Thranduil held his crown out. "You can leave after you fix this."

Emma looked from the crown and back to him. "What if I refused?"

Thranduil shrugged. "You can stay here then."

Emma felt a bit of a blush creeping up her neck. She reached over and snatched the crown out of his hand, quickly replacing it to it's normal state. "There!" She dropped it, points down, onto his chest.

Thranduil grunted then muttered, "What have I done to deserve such treatment?" Putting the crown on his night stand, already half-asleep, he looked at Emma.

"Well? Are you going to leave? Or do you want to stay here after all?"

Emma blushed bright red, whirled around, and flounced out the door.

Thranduil buried his face in his pillow, pushing away the random thoughts about how undignified he must have looked. Especially his hair.

He sighed.

Elleths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tranlations-
> 
> Quena mani?- Say what?
> 
> Lle lakwenian?- Are you joking?
> 
> Tanya nae sai n'eina.- That was not very funny.
> 
> Lle rangwa amin?- Do you understand me?
> 
> Lle quena i'lambe tel' Eldalie?- Do you speak Elvish?
> 
> Elleth- Female elf
> 
> Ama poldora- Strengthen
> 
> Kanta- Morph (I think… either that or Poly o.o)


	25. Chapter 25

It was all black.

Therefore, it must be dark.

Brilliant.

Yes. If black then dark.

Uuuugh… Here we go. Five, four, three, two, one;

A shriek comes from nowhere. There it is.

Ghoulish laughter, surrounding her.

Up.

Down.

Left.

Right.

Perpendicular.

Diagonal.

Obtuse.

Acute.

Laughter everywhere.

Wait what?

Blackness. Laugher. Blackness. Cackling. Creatures. Horrible creatures. Unseen. Blackness. Laughter. Red eyes.

Wait what? Those weren't there a second ago...

Anyways… red eyes. Gleaming eyes. Gleaming teeth.

That meant one thing.

One word.

Warg.

Not again.

oOo

A short scream came out of Emma as she shot out of bed. Literally. Out of bed and onto the floor. She curled into herself and sobbed rather loudly. Probably too loudly, but she didn't really consider it. She was sobbing loudly enough that she didn't hear the door open and close.

She started violently when she felt arms wrap around her.

"Shhh… it's alright. It's just me," Miri whispered soothingly. Emma sat up and wrapped her arms around Miri's neck, sobbing into her shoulder.

"They were laughing… Laughing at me.." Emma choked out. "And it's eyes. It's eyes…"

"You're safe now. It's alright," Miri said quietly, stroking Emma's hair back gently. They had gone through this routine before. Ever since Emma had been saved.

They sat there on the floor, Emma quietly crying and Miri silently worrying. They sat there until the sun finished it's slow journey over the horizon, bathing Greenwood the Great in a shining golden light.

oOo

Emma's lessons had been going wonderfully.

She could manipulate almost any plant out there.

Which brought her to this moment. Right here. Right now.

She peered out from around the bush at the unsuspecting Legolas. A deranged chuckle escaped her lips. She saw him approach the tree and a maniacal gleam lit her eyes. Five… four… three… two.. one… The tree root shot out and wrapped around Legolas, effectively pinning him to the ground

"ARRRRRGH!"

Emma burst into hysterical laughter, tumbling out of the bush and falling on her side.

"EMMA GET ME OUT AT ONCE!" Legolas hollered.

Emma just laughed harder, managing to choke out a strangled, "I wish I had a camera…"

Legolas paused in his struggles for a brief moment. "A what?"

"Nothing!" Emma sang before bursting into another fit of giggles. Legolas resumed his struggles, becoming increasingly frustrated with the giggling culprit.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Both elf and human/elf/whatever-she-is ceased their antics and blinked up at the Elvenking, who stood ominously above them, the shining sun making his hair almost unbearably bright. So bright, in fact, that Emma covered her eyes and whined in protest.

This brought back to both of them a memory of her rescue-

*Le Flashback*

"Your hair. It hurts to look at it. Too bright. Put it away."

"Come now. Let's not be too over-dramatic."

*end of le flashback*

Thranduil rolled his eyes at Emma and looked over to his son, raising an eyebrow loftily. "What, pray, got you down there?"

Legolas coughed, "Uh, Emma… She decided she needed some practice."

Thranduil looked back at Emma who was now glaring at him with defiance. "Release him."

"Why?"

Thranduil narrowed his eyes. "Because I said to."

Emma stuck her chin up slightly and crossed her arms. "What if I don't want to?"

Thranduil smirked. "I'll do it myself."

Emma watched in awe as the roots quickly drew back from Legolas' legs. She turned her eyes to Thrandy, who was standing there looking rather smug. "You never told me you could do it too!" she all but yelled.

Thranduil sighed. "You never asked."

There was a slight pause as Legolas dusted himself off and sent a reproachful glare at Emma, and then to Gimli, who was sitting a way off, smoking his pipe and chuckling.

"Are you going to be at the feast tonight Emma?" Legolas asked, once the silence had gone on for time, with all three of them gazing in different directions (Legolas at the tree, Emma at the sky [She was still on the ground] and Thranduil at Emma).

"Say again?" Emma queried, starting slightly.

"Are. You. Going. To. The. Feast," Legolas repeated with exaggerated slowness.

"Sure," Emma said flippantly, flopping back down onto the grass. Thranduil raised an eyebrow, but did not comment, choosing instead to turn abruptly around and stride off as if he had something important to do (Legolas knew that he really didn't). A soft snore drew his attention to Emma, who- to his dismay- had fallen asleep sprawled out on the grass.

Legolas rolled his eyes. Luckily the rumors had died down slightly, so he deemed it safe to let her sleep in peace.

Hopefully she would wake up in time for the feast.

oOo

Emma laughed merrily as she and Legolas whirled around the dance floor to the beat of the energetic song. This was by no means a refined song, and involved lots of spinning and whirling and turning (I just repeated myself).

At the end of the turn, Legolas let go of her hands and she spun over to whomever was next to her, which turned out to be Nylan of all people- uh- elves, and he grinned down at her. Emma returned it and was turned over to an altogether unfamiliar ellon.

By the end of the song, everyone was breathing heavily and laughing. And congratulating one-another on not passing out.

The next song started, and it reminded Emma of one of those dances from the Victorian era. With the lines and stuff. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Nylan in an exaggerated bow, holding his hand out to her.

"My lady! May I have this dance," he said in an elvish posh voice.

Emma giggled and executed a -not perfect, but passable- curtsey and said, in kind, "Of course, my lord."

The dances of the elves were a very beautiful thing to watch, and remarkably easy to do. As earlier stated, this particular dance was not unlike one from the Victorian era of our world, two lines of dancers, one ellyth and one ellin, faced each other, holding the hand of the one opposite. At one point, the ellon, would let go of the hand of the elleth opposite him and switch (gracefully of course) with the ellon to his right. Likewise for the ellyth.

This was how Emma found herself dance with the Elvenking, half-way through the song. Talk about awkward. Emma stared up at him in surprise and said, straight to the point as always, "I thought you didn't dance."

Thranduil raised an eyebrow, "On the contrary, my lady, I dance quite often. You just have not payed any attention."

Emma opened her mouth to protest, but realized that he was right. "One to you, Thrandiffic.." she muttered sullenly.

Thranduil, for once, didn't appear annoyed by her choice of name. In fact, he had actually smirked. Emma found herself slightly baffled, but just as she was about to ask him about it, they switched again.

So much for that.

Emma wandered over to the long table, filled with all kinds of delicious goodies and observed the elleth the king was currently talking to. She was beautiful, of course, and had waist length blond hair. A big chest (but, thinking on it, most of the ellyth here had big chests) and a beautiful floor-length white (ugh) dress. Emma, for some inexplicable reason, found herself disliking the elleth.

Emma thought about why she would not like this elleth.

She could come up with no logical reasons.

Now, to look at the illogical.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Nylan (where did he come from?) once again asking her to dance. Emma once again accepted, even though she was pretty tired, and once again, found herself whirling around the dance floor.

TBC (yes, this means that this feast isn't over… mwaha)


	26. Chapter 26

Emma lurked by the long wooden table that held the assorted foods and drinks. She gulped down water by the glassful, trying desperately to get her heart rate to go down. She had never realized that dancing could be so taxing. Finally, feeling as though it was safe enough to leave the vicinity of the water pitchers, Emma wandered along the edge of the room. She saw Legolas out on the dance floor, twirling with a tall ellith, whose hip length hair was a beautiful shade of red. She wondered if maybe this was Leggy's girlfriend... she wasn't even sure if he had one!

Emma noticed that the song had ended and made a split-second decision to go accost Leggy and his special friend.

Slowly sauntering up behind them, Emma stuck her face over Legolas' shoulder and said in a sweet voice, "So- Leggy- Who is... this?"

Legolas heaved a sigh that couldn't be mistaken for anything but one of long-suffering, and said in an exasperated voice- "This is Tauriel. And no, Emma, I am not courting her. Please leave her alone."

Emma grinned at Tauriel. "I've heard of you! You are the Captain of the Guard or something badass like that!"

Tauriel was the very picture of confusion. "Badass? What is that? Who are..." Tauriel's eyes widened. "Wait.. I know you. You are the elleth I rescued in Dol Guldur!"

Emma froze.

Legolas felt awkward.

Thranduil lurked rather creepily in the background, pretending not to eavesdrop as he nursed a goblet of wine, unnoticed by the others.

After a moment of silence, Tauriel said, "Forgive me... I did not mean to offend you."

Emma twitched and then her eyes widened, "Oh no no no! Sorry about that! Really sorry... I'm not offended. I just.. don't remember you?"

Tauriel relaxed a fraction. "You wouldn't, an ellon who seemed to know you took over not long after.

"Oh, that would've been Carl," Emma said, sounding a bit more cheerful.

Tauriel raised an eyebrow. "Carl?"

"Yes?"

Emma jumped and shrieked at the sudden appearance of her friend. Tauriel eyed Carl up and down. Carl grinned at Emma and bowed slightly towards Legolas and Tauriel.

"Talking about me behind my back, eh?"

Emma faked a sheepish look. "Sorry Carl... there is just so much about you..."

Carl sniffed. "I know. I am rather popular, aren't I?"

"Your name isn't Carl!"

Everyone looked over at Tauriel. Emma looked scandalized.

"What?" Tauriel said defensively, "It's not!"

Emma leaned in and whispered, "Well.. his other name is a lie."

Tauriel felt even more confused than before. Suddenly Carl yelled, "Hey Zippy! Over here!" The small group turned around just in time to see Zippy cast a panicked look in there direction before practically running away. Carl didn't waste a second in giving chase and Emma was about to follow when Nylan appeared.

"My lady, may I have a word?"

Emma's face took on an expression of confusion before she slowly nodded her head, eying Nylan warily as she followed him away from the crowd.

Tauriel and Legolas watched them leave. "He wishes to court her," Legolas murmured quietly. Tauriel nodded her head. They stood in silence for a bit before a realization seemed to hit her.

"What kind of name is Zippy?"

oOo

Emma was thinking.

Thinking of Nylan's sudden formality and his ability to appear out of nowhere.

Nylan came to a stop and Emma shivered a little as the cool night air hit her skin. Turning, Emma looked out at the vast expanse of Thranduil's kingdom. The stars shone bright and she almost forgot the presence of the ellon behind her. He coughed a little and Emma turned around quickly, nearly squeaking when she found that her face was almost in his neck.

Backing up a little, Emma cleared her throat, wondering at how quickly it had gotten awkward. Nylan rubbed his hands together and upon closer inspection, Emma saw that he was blushing slightly. What on earth could have him so flustered?

"I-I-" Nylan made an attempt at speaking. It wasn't very good.

Emma raised an eyebrow.

"Oh Vala..." Nylan whirled around and paced in a circle. Emma started to get an inkling of what might be going on and also started to blush. Finally, throwing his hands up in the air, Nylan paced back over to Emma and did the unthinkable.

He kissed her.

Emma barely had time to even register what was going on before they were interrupted rather rudely.

Well... more like Nylan was interrupted since Emma was just noticing that elves-at least this elf was- were really, really, good kissers.

oOo

After Emma had walked away, Thranduil lurked after her. What could he say? He was bored. He didn't want her offending anyone. There were countless logical reasons for him to follow her. He reached the balcony her and that shady ellon had gone to.

Thranduil nearly dropped his wineglass.

He was kissing her.

That lowly, Silvan gardener was kissing her.

Kissing Emma.

Unacceptable.

Thranduil placed his goblet down and flounced onto the scene.

"What is going on here?"

Emma and Nylan couldn't have sprung away faster if there was a spring between them.

Thranduil's gaze slid between the two, finally resting suspiciously upon Nylan. Yes... shady was the only way to describe that gardener.

Without breaking eye contact, Thranduil said to Emma, "Would you give us a moment?"

Too embarrassed to even nod, Emma practically ran back into the ballroom.

Thranduil got straight to the point. "What... was that?"

Nylan was also embarrassed, but he lifted his chin up and answered truthfully. "I was kissing her, my lord."

Thranduil rolled his eyes at the insipid ellon. "I know that. Why."

Nylan balked. "I wish... to... court her, my lord."

Thranduil moved around Nylan and drew himself up to his full height. "And, do you think this appropriate?"

Nylan looked confused. Thranduil resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. "You are her teacher, are you not?"

Nylan paled slightly. "Yes, my lord."

"And do you deem it appropriate that a relationship of this... type... occur between a teacher and his student?"

Nylan dropped his head, "My lord... forgive me, but she is a grown ellith. She can make her own decisions."

This did not sit well with the Elvenking.

He stuck his face in uncomfortable close to Nylan's. "You will leave her be."

To scared to argue, Nylan merely nodded, his face now a sickly white.

"I don't want to hear this mentioned again," Thranduil said imperiously, straightening himself up.

"Y-yes my lord."

Nylan all but ran from the balcony.

Thranduil turned and stared out over the forest, mulling over his sudden possessive streak. Why should he have such a problem with this? The gardener was right, it was Emma's decision, but the thought of that ellon.. it just made him feel-

"What did you do to him!"

Thranduil slowly turned and looked the furious Emma up and down. "I merely told him to respect his boundaries."

"You had no right to do that!" Emma yelled.

Thranduil sniffed and turned his back on her.

He heard the noise of a foot stomping and rolled his eyes.

"Ugh! You're so.. so... Petulant!" Emma snapped before turning and storming back into the ballroom, ignoring the incredulous looks she was receiving from the various partygoers who had been within hearing range of the insult.

Thranduil managed to quickly reign in his ire, with naught but the twitch of his eye.

He would deal with her later. Now was not the time.


End file.
